I am new to programing and I am confused about where to start. I would like to learn how to make programs but i hav no clue how to.
Thanx

First thing to do is read what you can. Find lots of primers and tutorials. Go to your local library and check out a few books if you like. If you're in college I'm sure your university's library will have a few.

What programming language are you interested in? First of all if you're wanting to do c++ or something like that you'll need a compiler. Some universities offer free software to their students such as MS visual studio or something like that. You can check into that or just download one off the net. Java has a free one I believe. If you're wanting to program in php and javascript you can use astahost as a place to upload and test your files.

Read all the posts that have topics related to starting out, or beginners and programming and I'm sure you'll find a lot more resources.

First thing you really need to know is what programming language do you want to learn, and what exactly do you want to make? Do you just want to learn programming, or do you have a goal (some type of programming) that you wish to achieve?

If you are really new to programming, I advise you to start with some basic programming languages, for example QBasic. It is quite simple, but can be used for some really neat programmes. The good thing about it is that you learn the basics of programming while learning a new language.

When I started programming, I began with QBasic, than practiced it for about half a year and then switch to Pascal (which I had to because of school) and C# (because I wanted to). Other friends of mine who have never programmed before had a lot of problems understanding the way programmes work. I had the advantage because I learned a language that tought me the basics. Now, with those basics I have no problem learning more complicated languages (such as C#), because I know my way around.

So, don't start with something difficult right away, you're better off with QBasic, trust me. After that, switch to C#, in my opinion one of the most powerful languages (currently). The future of Windows applications is within it, and you know how Microsoft programmers have really good salaries

If you listen to my advice and start with QBasic, this is a good tutorial:
QBASIC Programming for Kids
Don't worry, even though it says "for kids", any starter can use it.

Good luck!

What kind of things are you trying to program? Web pages? Applications? If you are tyring to program the web you will need to learn different languages from programming applications or games. If you are just trying to learn anything in general I would suggest you start with Java since it uses the object oriented approach which is the programming methodology in widespread use today. Universities start you off with Java these days, at least they did for me. The book they used was "Object-Oriented Problem Solving Java Java Java" by Ralph Morelli. As for web programming, pick up a book on HTML, unfortunately I don't know any good books to recommend. If you have any questions, post it on the forums, I am sure there are many people willing to help including me. Good luck.

You cannot "program" web pages. Programming is creating a sequence of commands that get executed one after the other. When making a web page, the HTML code doesn't get executed that way, it is only used to show the graphical web page. However, you can CREATE a web page. For that, start of with HTML, and when you master it go to php and databases, since all major websites use that.

You can program web apps, that is probably what he was referring to...maybe.

But yes I would also reccomend java as a first language to learn. QBasic is obsolete, and you can learn the basics of programming just as easily in java. Java, java, java is a pretty good text actually as it lets you learn everything from a hello world! program on up.

Regardless of the language you choose to learn first, follow the reccomendations here. Get some good resources before trying to jump in. While its possible to learn from code examples and short bits and pieces on various sites. If you have a well constructed primer, tutorial site, or textbook it will help you immensely (especially since you have no experience at all). Textbooks are expensive, but they also sometimes come with all the software you will need (compilers and whatnot) and then give VERY detailed descriptions of using the software and give you a very good step by step view of what is needed to go from a desire to code to having output on the screen.

Good luck and enjoy programming

I started my programming with Scheme (a variant of LISP) and I must say it's a very good place to start, because it's simple to understand, you don't have to deal with data-types most of the time, it supports multiple programming paradigms (Object-Oriented, Imperative, Functional...) and you can do very nifty programs, and learn about abstract data-types, tree algorithms, whatnot.

Very flexible and easy for a first language (OK, I admit I got tired of all the parenthesis real fast ) and you grasp the basics of programming really smoothly with it.

I recall my 1st year university project on Scheme was to code the AI of a sort of exploration robots, having them to travel through an unknown world, creating maps on what they've found and relaying all that information to every other robot in the world. It was quite a challenge (even greater since I was forced to do it alone in one week because my colleage didn't give a crap for it and it was supposed to be a full month 2 people project) and I must say I was impressed by the power of the language.

Since it's an interpreted language, you don't need to compile it and it runs on every OS where you have the "IDE" installed. DrScheme (http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/drscheme/) is a very good application to develop Scheme projects. I'd recommend you my university book but it's not sold anywhere else but there and it's in portuguese...

Anyway, there are tutorials out there for sure, so no worries, you can learn it!

programming, creating ... does it really matter??... you should know what i mean by context.. .. and yes definitely QBasic is obsolete. If you learn procedural programming, I heard switching over to object oriented programming is going to be a little more difficult.

I started learning programming with Python simply because it came installed on my computer. It is a fairly easy programming language to learn and you can easily pick up another language from there.

I also found an excellent tutorial for Python when I was learning it and that really helped. There are tutorials for about any language you choose to learn available free online.

Here is the Python tutorial that I think highly of:
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Wow lot's of tips for starting on programming.
I, myself am looking into it as well on the moment.
I think it is good to start with a sort of basic programminglanguage and then choose something more specialised.
I'm going to look in QBasic, DrScheme and Python which you guys sugested, wonder where it will bring me.