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Whats the best teaching language for someone that has never programmed before?

General concensus seems to be that python is the best place to start, but to be honest, i personally found PHP easier to learn than python (although this is possibly because i already had a background with c style syntax so things fell more naturally to hand).

Does anybody have any experience of having to teach programming, what language would you recommend to demonstrate general programming theory?

I’ll suggest for “C”

Many languages have been used, even specifically designed, for teaching programming concepts.  I’ve always found that it’s more the “how” of teaching the concepts than the language used that makes the difference.

“C” is a great place to start as so many other languages are built from its syntax.

I found it very hard to switch from PHP to Actionscript / Javascript, I would have loved to have someone explain me the different underlying concepts.

C++ OR Java to learn the concepts of programming.

C.

If you want to go into web designing line then go for Php and for going into software development learn “C” or Java.

Wow! You must be very good at your job!

General programming I’d guess Java, it’s what my univercity uses. I don’t know C so I can’t comment on that, but from what I’ve heard Java is a bit easier to learn and very similar.

For specific web-scripting learning PHP might be a good place to start directly. But PHP has the gigantic disadvantage of being very flexible in it’s rules. Which is fine if you know how to write good code, but for beginners almost encourages writing bad code. Strickt typing, specific arity and forced object oriented are good things to learn that can be avoided in PHP. If you start out with Java you start out with stuff that you have to learn in order to produce working code. Which will be incredibly usefull when programming with PHP, where you might have avoided learning the advantages of more strickt code because you didn’t have to.

For general programming I’d recommend C.

For web programming in particular I’d recommend Python or Ruby.  PHP can teach you some bad concepts starting out because it is so liberal.

Better learn C, because C is the mother language for every programming language.

I think one of the most important factors is practicality in which case I recommend PHP. Students remain much more interested when they can create something interesting.

I think one of the most important factors is practicality in which case I recommend PHP. Students remain much more interested when they can create something interesting.

I agree, classes is much more fun when it’s not just theory, and low level programming tends to be just that :(

I’d go with Java as well, which is the main language used at my university. C might be the mother of most modern programming languages, but Java is much kinder to a beginner and thanks to it’s extensive API library you can easily go from complete beginner to being able to create a simple graphical game in the span of a course.

PHP does it easier for me…I am more used to it….