I'm sure we all know about programming languages, what they are all, at least the popular ones. I've been hearing this a lot lately: if you know one programming language, you can easily transition onto another programming language if you want to.

As for me, I learned FORTRAN 77 a year ago and I didn't like it at all. The debugging process was a nightmare. I'm sure my knowledge of it is just dwindling away since I don't use it anymore. But the thing is, I recently got into MATLAB programming and I do say, what I learned for FORTRAN helped a lot. Some notations are different, but the programming structure is essentially the same. MATLAB is fun stuff, and I certainly enjoy it more than FORTRAN.

I know with the career path I've chosen, while it's not required to know any programming language, but it's recommended to know at least one for the workplace. I can't deny the importance of it. Heck, I just wrote a MATLAB program code to solve a homework assignment.

Do you know a programming language, or two, or three? What was the very first programming language you learned? How was that one? And if you know another one, did your knowledge of the first programming language helped you in learning the second one?

Do you think in today's technology-driven society, that it's essential to know a programming language, at least the basics like the if statements, do/for loops, and all that fun stuff?

So any thoughts?

Programming languages are just that, a computer language, nothing more nothing less. What matters here is your logic which is executed by an algorithm. The language (code) is just a medium to translate this algorithm into something the computer can understand. Having said that, which language you pick is a personal preference and I don't believe knowing any specific language would help you pickup another language. As long as your algorithm holds, you can execute it in any language of your choosing even if you have never used the language before. All you need is look up the API ;)

I started to learn programming this past summer in Python. We learned from the very basics, about setting up variables, strings, going into if and elif conditions, and then eventually going into more advanced stuff like loops, classes, sorting, program design and recursion.

Overall, I don't like programming because my brain just isn't wired for that kind of stuff. Programming are more suited to people who can think about logic very clearly and quickly, ie. mathematicians, and I'm definitely not great at math. Sure, if I try hard enough I'll get by it, but preferably, I don't like it. It's the same as programming. I didn't like it because it was all based around logic. Thinking from one line of code to another is just not my thing. I got really frustrated throughout the course for just about every lab. I didn't do too well on my first project, but my second project, a Poker game, went really well, scoring 100% on it. The final exam in the course was really what determined if you passed the course or not, because if you failed it you failed the course. It put a ton of pressure on me and I managed 46/90, but the mark was scaled so 35-40% was the actual pass/fail mark. I didn't like it at all and it ruined my summer.

I'm currently taking a multimedia programming course using Java as the programming language. I didn't know anything about Java, I didn't know what object-oriented programming was because we hardly ever touched on that in my previous programming course. Some similarities are the if, else-if, and else statements, setting up variables/fields were different but I quickly learned it, loops were somewhat similar, and a few other things, but most of the stuff we jumped into was difficult stuff. I had to learn the basics of Java AND learn how to draw 2D images from scratch, using and importing 2D images, image processing, sound processing, user interaction, animations, movies, mouse and keyboard interaction. Just about every topic needed to build a game in Java we covered, and that's exactly where I am right now. It's only half a month until this semester ends and the last and final assignment given to us is to build a game of any kind as long as it was advanced in some way, so I chose a 2D tank game. The game could support 2 players and they would shoot each other over a 2D battle field viewed from a bird's eye perspective.

As frustrating as it was, I think there were some essentials in programming that you could learn and apply to other fields. The whole logic and problem solving skills are built from programming and I think it's one of the best ways to learn those skills. In terms of the applications of programming, it's definitely given us a lot. It's given us just about anything to do with electricity - games, computers, television, music, cars, just about every technology out there has some kind of program built into them. Coming out of these 2 programming courses has definitely changed the ways I view things around me. Now, every time I play a game or any software of some sort, I just think to myself, "someone out there had the smarts to build this", and for that I have max respect for them. Having gone through the tough times in programming, I now see anything that has a program in it with a much higher value and often give it a second thought, "Kudos to the man who made this program".

Worked a little with BASIC, Turbo Pascal (argh inline is hell) years ago.
Lately it's PowerShell, Visual DataFlex both are annoying and the languages I used to work with don't really help.

I just started learning programming, and I've been learning C++. I have no complaints about it so far.

Im learning JAVA the only thing im having trouble with is memorizing the codes
but i wanna continue learning it...

I am learning programming languages to complete my B.C.A Course, Now-a-days I am learning BASIC, COBOL, C, C++ and java. The most difficult thing is for me to memorize all the array!

Well the first language I learn was C++ just let me just tell you learn how to program it is not easy or simple but when you learn just the basic it can be of some utility, I really like Visual Basic because is easy to use and I have develop a few small program's for myself.

I managed to get to an intermediate level with RealBASIC (if you can call that a language) and have messed around with Objective-C/Cocoa enough to be able to do a few basic things with it. If you count web languages as programming languages, I'm pretty decent at HTML and CSS.

I learned a fair amount on VB, a little on C++ and Java. I wouldnt say its a necessity, but the skill you get from learning these programming language is useful.

I can only use an armchair here, but for example, if you play a games of the same genre, even when you play a different one for the first time, you immediately grasp the whole concept of the game. So it kinda applies to programming languages (imo).

Even microsoft made the video saying that what you learn in your first year in university would probably be outdated by the time you are in third year. So really, learn the concept of programming languages, not the just the specific language itself.

Of course, Its when you are looking for programming jobs that you of course, you will need to study a lot about them. But with how technology is progressing so fast more than ever before, its not really being "pro" in a certain programming language, rather, developing problem solving skills.

Well, I've learnt Delphi(Turbo Pascal), C# and C++, and I think C++ is by far the most useful language and if you understand C++ well enough, you basically know most of the other languages, well that is just me and my friends opinions.

I learned how to start programs on c64 when i was a child. Basic prog.lang. came when i was in school, then in sec. school i've learned pascal. now I'm learning c++ and also used to write some javascript or actionscript to my html pages. Also php is handy. I would definietly say that you've got the programming basics, it is very easy to learn another language. I can't program in fortran but i heard it's like hell compared to program languages at a "higher level". (It is funny actually that they are called higher level languages since the programmer probably gets a higher level of knowledge if he learns a lower level language. :P) I recently tried C# also. I know to write some shell (bash) / powershell scripts, too, as well as dos batch... (these are just scripts, anyway). I also dealed with visual basic a bit. As you can see, if you know one language it is very easy to learn the other languages, too. :)
Anyway i am unsure if you must know a programming language or not. I would say that's absolutely not essential. Although if you know a way to use it, it can be very fun. The hard part if you don't know a programming language is to get a reasonably good point of why should you learn it. (since you don't know what task do you want your program for and also you don't know if it is too complicated to do or it is easy.)

I was taught some BASIC, then we were asked to make a computer game with a partner.

I wasn't good at it (nor was my partner). We tried making Snake (you know, the cellphone game). Disaster. Disaster. Disaster.


Never again. They tell me you have to be somewhat good in Math... I'm not.

I've studied C, C++ and am currently doing VB and SQL.

Personally, I can't stand programming at all... probably due to the ineffective teaching methods in place, with each language I've done, they teach you the basics, then when moving off the basics, don't teach you at all, just task you with exercises but don't show you at all how to do or even approach them.

I learned Java pretty good but haven't used it for about a year now so I'm starting to forget some of the key words. Java is very easy to use and debug thanks to programs like eclipse. I also use MatLab to solve matrix and complex algebra problems and do some graphs, but wouldn't say I know it. I also want to learn C since it is more powerful than Java.

I think that its important to know at least one language because after that others come fairly easy because they are based on the same idea, just different key words and punctuation.