[jeebusroxors]

You need to pick a few languages, research them and find which one interests you the most. Take into account your and the languages philosophies, your end goal or even something as shallow as how the language looks to you.

Note: ruby has tryruby.org and python has trypython.org

Both are good candidates for a first language, and have excellent books available online.

[rachnaspace]

Thanks jeebusroxors! Python seems a good choice from the comments here.

What do you mean by 'language philosophies'? can you pls explain a bit?

[jeebusroxors]

The example I had in mind was Perls There's more than one way to do it (TMTOWTDI).

Python is the opposite. They strive for one clear way to do things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theres_more_than_one_way_to_do_...

This may be above your head but just remember, the first language you learn will not be your last. If you end up picking lisp and hate it you can always learn c. _Programming_ is (for the most part) universal between all languages. Once you get the basics you only need to learn the syntax.