Learing the bases of programming is language agnostic really. You can start even with pseudo code, then learn the language you will like to work with. Just choose any language that seems fun and enjoy the process.

Good luck!

I question the suggestion that Zig and Go are not "serious" programming languages. They certainly weren't designed to be "easy" beginner languages.

I don't think it matters a whole lot which language you start with. Learning to program is largely separate from learning a particular language, and if you do programming for a while, you'll probably learn several. I do think someone who wants to understand programming deeply should learn each of:

• A lisp, probably Racket, but others will do. This teaches a lot about how computation works, and is at least a local maximum for abstractive power.
• C, an assembly language, or something similar where the developer must manage memory manually and has the ability to mismanage it. This teaches how computers work.
• A statically typed functional language, probably Haskell. This makes programming more math-like and probably represents a local maximum for what can be proven about a program's behavior without solving the halting problem.
• SQL. I wish there was something prettier with a modicum of popularity that does what it does (PRQL is my favorite recent attempt), but there isn't. This teaches thinking about data in sets and relations, and you will almost certainly use it in practice.

Go is not serious? TIL.

There is benefit in learning any language.

The trouble with “easy” languages is that they allow you to write incorrect code without much pushback.

The trouble with “serious” languages is that they push back even when you’re writing correct code.

There’s plenty to learn from either route. Just pick something that piques your interest and dive in.

Anything is better than nothing.

Go and Zig are serious languages. Go is especially established and has a big ecosystem and capabilities. You could stick with Go forever if you don't want to expand afterwards.

Starting 'simpler' is better because it gives you successes. It keeps you going.

no. You must start with malboge

crazy to call zig, a low level systems language, an "easy" language

Zig or go are not that unserious of languages. Zig is arguably quite hard due to being pretty low-level. Maybe think about what domain you want to do programming in.. Python might be a decent starting point tho (easy language, no memory management)

It's not so much easy-difficult, it's high-level-low-level. Low-level languages can be easy in the sense that you don't have many entities to juggle (stacks, registers, etc.) and high-level languages can be miserable, like C++.
Of you're interested in starting with the fundamentals, go with C. If you just want to get something made, go with Claude Python.

Yes 99% of programming is the higher level thought process behind making a program, and that skill transfers between programming languages. The specific syntax doesn’t matter that much.

Logic is common to all programming languages. Everything else is syntax and knowing what functions or utilities you can capitalize on. No matter how complex things seem under the hood it's only one instruction at a time that is being processed. Speed and memory make it seem like multitasking. It's as simple as "If this, then that". Once you get the foundations of logic down, you're good to go. Everything else is experience and time takes care of that. Good luck and have fun. As far as confidence goes my mantra throughout life, especially when faced with complex situations is a derisive "How hard can this be?", while plodding forward.

I don't think most languages you'll encounter in the wild are too "easy".

Universities here start you off with Python in the first semester because it's easy for beginners to grasp. That doesn't mean it's not "serious" though, the whole AI/ML/Big Data ecosystem is ALL Python, largely because there are excellent data processing libraries for Python and stuff like PyTorch for offloading work to the GPU.

Just don't try to use Powerpoint for programming, it's possible but you'll go mad.

Firstly, Zig and Go are serious. Anybody who told you different isn't a good person to learn from.

My journey was:

• Basic (various dialects)
• 6502 assembly
• Forth
• 68000 assembly
• Pascal
• C
• Perl
• C++
• Python
• x86 assembly
• Java
• Haskell
• RISC-V assembly
• Zig

With some others thrown in I'm sure and some hardware description languages. The stuff I learnt in Basic 45 years ago is still relevant today. I learnt something from all of them. It doesn't really matter where you start, but you have to take a first step and you need to write code to learn, even if it's just copying it. It has to go through your fingers.

Where did you get the idea that Zig is an "easy" language?

Python is designed as an easy language. Yet it is a fundemental important language in the IT, backbone of many Linux operating systems and servers. One could even say... a serious language.

I personally wouldn't care if a language is called "easy" or not. You should also look at what it is capable at its peak and where it is used most often, if it works for you. Pick the language that you think fits you the best. I wouldn't call Zig as an easy language to get into, its still low level language.

so one thing about programming languages is at the end of the day, they can all generally accomplish the same things. they are all turing complete and generally capable of expressing programs that any of the others can.

as others in this thread have said, many patterns you learn within one programming language will transfer to others. some personal context, i attended and then taught at a coding bootcamp for a year about a decade ago, saw over 300 students and have been doing software engineering since. it was full time and the students would learn ruby basics over 4 weeks and then would be able to do the same things in javascript in a few days. that said, those languages are pretty similar but i hope it makes the point.

so my main suggestion is to start with a general purpose, syntactically simple language. the less syntax and overhead in the language, the more you will be able to focus on the fundamentals of programming and less on jumping through the hoops of the language you're working with. stay away from typed languages for at least the first few months unless you really really only want to do low level stuff.

some languages i think you should consider: ruby, python, javascript. they are relatively similar for a beginner. python has more usage in data heavy scenarios due to it's extensive data libraries. ruby's whole mantra is being a joy to write. javascript is simple but that also means you don't get much help from it out of the box. consider it as a first/second language mainly if you are interested in websites.

I found it easier to start with something considered medium difficulty, because "easy" languages abstract away a lot of problems of programming. So when certain problems arise, its hard to understand what is happening behind the scenes.

If you want to build something, python is great. If you wanna learn programming, it might be confusing.

Any language is good to start with. When you learn a language pick one that makes sense to you. The main thing you are learning is not the language it's how to change how you think about problems. From there the differences between languages are technical and any language can be conquered in time except JavaScript because fuck JavaScript.

Is this bait? Zig and Go are very much serious, especially Zig.

Generally python/Javascript is good for learning the basics. To know how types work learn c#/java/go. To learn how the memory works Zig/C are good. To learn about what a fully defined behavior means in a program you learn Rust. To learn what actually happens on the processor you learn assembly.

Honestly, if you're hyped about Zig go for it, although I'd suggest "warming up" by doing a tic tac toe in python.

Go is easy??

Leant how to solve problems with if, else if, else and for and while, and you can do a ton of stuff. Learn how to work with objects and APIs and you’ve got the basics for any language. You will always need to learn syntax, convention, and secure practices, but the fundamentals don’t change.

Go is great to learn on. Go for it. And it's super useful for web dev.

Zig and Go are serious. I think Python would be a language that isn't serious (despite it's widespread use in serious applications) but has a reputation for being easy. I don't know if that reputation is really deserved.

Anyway I would start with one of Python, Go or Typescript (via Deno). I would avoid Rust, Haskell, OCaml, C++ as your very first language, but they could be your second.

Whatever you do don't learn Python and stop there. That's the way to be a crap programmer. And if you do use Python learn to use type hints early on.

C

It's...sort of not a question of easy vs hard. Why would anyone make a hard programming language?

It's more about picking a language that is suitable for what you want to do with it.

Nothing is easy when learning programming from scratch and by yourself ; just choose whatever you feel is cool (at beginner level, it does not make a big difference).

Avoid the compilation process by using interpreted language

My personal 2 bits: start with JavaScript.

You can run it in your browser console and get at least a little but of benefit from it no matter how far you go, scripting on web pages you use regularly.

Thanks to Node, you can reasonably build full stack systems with it. Fair warning, it's really best for I/O, so it's not really ideal for genuinely logically complex stuff.

You'll more quickly get to bigger tangible benefits connecting things that have already been built anyway.

Python as a starter otherwise, which is suitable for that genuinely logically complex stuff.

I try to only write in easy language if I can. My favorite one is Lean4.

There's lots of this vs that discussion in this thread. IMO the most useful such distinction I've encountered is languages that encourage you to think about data vs languages that encourage you to think about transformations (of data). Excel and modern OOP are the former while haskell and digital signal processing are the latter.

If Zig is easy than that means C is easy (as Zig is pretty much nicer written C) and if C is easy than, oh wait everything is written in C. I guess the only thing left to do is learn an unnecessary overcomplicated abstraction of C like java or C++.

As for the question, pick a task than pick a language, servers? Go seems to be replacing Java for the next generation, Games? Zig C# Odin C C++ Lua, Rewrites? Rust. Random small scripts? Python. Bare metal? C C++ Zig.

Also Zig Odin and Go are all C like languages if you learn one you learn about them all (with the exception of manual memory management for Go). My biased self recommend Zig as I think its the nicest, you almost certainly won't get a job in it but the skills will transfer directly to C or Go where you can get jobs.

Go is as serious as it gets. Go is also pretty simple and gives you great foundation and understanding.

Either go with Go (!) or with a lisp like racket, following the book https://htdp.org/ These are different approaches but will give you a huge headstart and better understanding of how to actually design a system instead of getting lost in code. I personally recommend the second approach to people who ask me.

Go seems like a good option to begin with; you can do a lot with it, and it's not that complicated but does expose you to concepts like pointers.

There are plenty of very "serious" systems written in Go (e.g. Kubernetes), it's not a toy language.

Doing anything with your brain will always increase it's aptitude in that "topic".

People that learn lots of human languages become better and better at learnig further human languages.

People that do one type of math get better at learning other types of math.

People that do something with their body coordination (athletes) can pick up other types of body coordination (other sports or dance for example.) faster compared to couch potatoes.

etc.

So doing anything with your brain is already useful, even as just a "workout".

Exactly don't start with easy languages you should start with the best programming language HolyC, the divine language.

When I first started programming I was constantly thinking the same thing: should I learn this or that language? Will it be useful or a waste of time?, etc but it really doesn't matter. Nearly every modern language has the same core principles of variables, constants, functions and data structures. Once you've gotten the hang of those ideas then switching languages is just a matter of learning the new syntax which isn't hard when you already know how it's going to work

Any use? Always! Exercising your brain will never be a bad investment!

But which language really depends on why you want to learn and what you want to do with it, though! Coming at it from a 'languages with an abundance of learning resources' perspective (sorry not exhaustive):

• You want to program devices; LEDs, microcontrollers, sensors, etc? Python!

• You want to make a pretty website? JavaScript with the React framework!

• You want to prototype out a monolithicly big web app quickly? Ruby on Rails!

• You want to make infographics? R!

• You want to start a career in Software Engineering? JavaScript with Node, Go, Rust, or C# with dot-net framework, and many more*. Also, abort, don't do this, AI is decimating the job seeking field right now.

So, it really depends on what YOU want to do with it. As others have hinted, a programming language is often just 'syntactic sugar' to accomplish the same programming concepts. Most all the modern languages can do the same things, just using different function-names/words/syntax. So as a learner, just frankly ignore all the "{X} is best at {Y}" arguments, including those above, and instead: concentrate on the concepts (like loops, recursion, associations, type control, etc, etc, etc.) over the specific language, first. Good luck OP!

Zig or Go are serious programming languages. Zig is actually the language I would least recommend for complete beginners because in my opinion it is one the most serious languages currently. What lead you to your examples Zig and Go and how do you determine what a 'serious' programming language is?

i mean, you'll be able to write things in that language, which i'd say is somewhat useful 🤔

It's kinda like asking "is it worth doing long hikes before training to do 5km runs?", you probably don't need to go on hikes in order to start running, but it's less intimidating and if you then realize you're just not into running then you're still left with a useful skill.

I don’t know about zig, but go is absolutely serious.

Lmao. First, everyone is right. Go is serious. An Zig as well. And a bit niche.

Furthermore: Yes. Unless you like learning curves as steep as a brick wall... You should probably start with something beginner friendly.

And you should get some kind of book to learn it. That's easier and faster than poking around and learning things in random order.

As an adult, just skip the programming languages made for children. And skip the crazy ones like PHP. Go for something that is both useful and doesn't come with 5 bazillion things to learn at once, and as many exceptions to those rules.

A lot of basic principles remain the same from one language to another. Some have more features than other, some have slightly obtuse grammar, but as long as you stay in the same class of programming language, it can be a good learning experience. Learning from "simple" languages and building up was the way to go for a long while.

I'm not sure I'd call Zig or Go "easy" programming language though. Most languages you'll hear about these days are quite high level (even C++ and C got there over time). These days, I'm not sure where one would start from scratch. "scripting" languages are a good idea, since they are extremely easy to experiment with, and unless you start poking too much can't do any harm.

But basically, if you stay with imperative programming (most used languages are like this) 80-90% of the knowledge you'll get in one translate into another; there's no bad way to start.

I get paid a whole lot to work solely in Deluge. which is the most painfully simple language ever. you want a join() built in? fuck you. sleep()? not allowed. you want a "for i in range()"? nope, they don't do that here.

simple languages are often the most used in production unless you're doing something highly specific that warrants a specific language.

I would suggest a different approach. Think about what you want to achieve with programming. Look at the languages which can be used to do this task. Choose one and try some tutorials, I recommend freecodecamp it helped me a lot.

I can't really comment on zig and go but I think they are pretty serious languages tbh.

I don't think your plan to get more serious is pointed at the right end or means.

You don't point criticism at programming languages necessarily. Because, later you'll want to find an ecosystem best suited to achieve a specific task.

If a later task becomes a serious consideration, then you'll seriously consider the best placed language to complete that task. Consequent language quibbles might be path of the course.

For example, working on Android is only going to be effective through a handful of languages such as Java, Kotlin, C#, JavaScript, …

Breaking new ground with another language pointed at Android would be like climbing Mt Everest without all the usual equipment. Sure it's a challenge, but is it the challenge you want?

Learn any language that helps you learn, but that's only as a means to that (learning) end.

I don't like complex languages. Why do i have to remember x100 for thing that a proper design from start would have accomplished? Some of the larger ones even have different keywords for basically the same task duplicated.

By that note, D seems decent.

If you are learning because you are just interested in this, then I might say go with any language like C/Go where you have real datatypes you can work with.

C might be a good place to start for a little while where you can learn the fundamentals like data types, logic, etc.

Once armed with the fundamentals, you can really just go wherever you desire, look at and maybe try a few to see what you like.

Programming is a tool. Systems understanding is what has value. Pick a system you want to learn and actively build and fail consistently.

Repeated exposure to reality is the way to learn fast and gain confidence.