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I completely agree with you: the easiest way to start programming is go grab some tutorials. I did just the opposite to learn C++ when I was in school: I searched how to set up my environment. Then I learned the syntax of the language. And then I opened a C++ template and asked myself: "Ok, I know how to do loops, create variables, assign, arithmetic operations, functions... What the hell do I do now?" I don't know if "For Dummies" books are good (never read one of them), but I suppose any book will be OK as long as it teachs you the basics and leaves you ready to dig deeper in the language. About the language to begin with... well, I started with C++ and I'm still alive. There are maybe easier languages, but I don't think that does really make a difference if you have a good guide to get you started. If you want to continue programming in one language, once you have a basic idea I reccomend to start building things. Whatever it is. If you have any doubts, search Google. Any basic question has been probably asked before. If it's not, StackOverflow is your friend. Last, when you feel comfortable with the language, grab a reference book/web and keep it. I don't recommend getting one of these when you're just starting because those books dig deep in the language, and it's hard to understand a concrete thing if you don't have prior, strong knowledge on other features of the language. With this reference you can solve a simple doubt just taking a look, and you can also learn new things (and strengthen your knowledge on the things you already knew) just by reading it. In my case (I'm a WP7 developer) I have the MSDN .NET documentation and a C# In A Nutshell book. Reading this last book I've learned a lot of things that don't appear so easily on the internet (never heard of yield-return until I read this book, and it's really great). It's from O'Reilly editorial which, by the way, is the best for me in this kind of programming/reference books. |