
Ask HN: What language should I learn first? Any specific resources? - alehul
As a nontechnical founder, I&#x27;m looking to get into programming. At the current point in time, what&#x27;s the best place to start?<p>I&#x27;d appreciate knowing what languages are best for what goals (and employability if needed), and any recommended online resources. Though I&#x27;m aiming for applicability as soon as possible, I&#x27;d also love any summaries of CS fundamentals, whether in the form of articles or more lengthy online courses. I want to learn it as best as I can.<p>Any personal anecdotes and tips would also be greatly appreciated!<p>Thanks in advance, HN :)
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jkchu
In college, my programming classes were mostly in C++, Java, and C#. Those
languages are generally important/important for working at companies like
Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.

A vast number of jobs these days are looking for developers with experience
working with web applications. Full-stack and front-end developers will almost
always need to know JavaScript (mainly for client-side application
development).

If you are hoping to just get your foot in the door and feel out if you enjoy
programming or not, I would recommend starting with Python. It is widely used
language that is easy to jump into and learn.

If you are hoping to learn programming via working on a small side project
there are some great NodeJS courses/tutorials online. Personally, I've found
some good courses of Udemy.com and some great tutorials at Thinkster.io.

Hope this helps!

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temporallobe
JavaScript, especially ES6. I also suggest a solid scripting language like
Perl.

If you plan to go after "Enterprise" application development (which will
actually be more like maintenance of legacy code), core Java is a good place
to start. IMO it's easy to learn because it's so verbose but hard to be
productive with for the same reason. Knowledge of Java can also get you into
the world of Android app development.

If you want new and trendy, I would look into Ruby and Clojure.

And since everything is going to the cloud these days, definitely start
looking into AWS.

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PaulHoule
Python is a good chance for the non-professional programmer because it is easy
to get started with, easy to hack things out with, but also solid enough that
you can take something hackish and get it into production.

