[TheHeadFL]

Originally posted by mikhael
I started to learn programming by myself and started with C. The reason to start with C was that C is a mother of C++ and Java, so if you know C you will pick up any of the above mentioned easy. I bought a book and it is really good, plain language, good explanation, hands on exercises, etc. The name of the book is "C all in one desk reference for dummies" author Dan Gookin. Have a look at this book in your local shop, should be there. I do not know if there are free compilers for Windows, I use Linux and all of the programming stuff is included in the distro.

This is the right approach. No programmer should start anywhere else but C. Starting off in an OOP-type language will inevitably lead to poor habits, not to mention a lack of fundamental understanding of programming techniques. You have to walk before you can run.

Learn C, then when you know enough to write a doubly linked list or binary tree search program with your eyes closed, move on to C++ and learn classes, templates, and all the OOP principles. Once you do this, consider yourself armed and ready to program in almost any modern (imperative) language. About all you couldn't touch is the weird functional stuff like Lisp or Prolog.