3 Simplest Programming Languages for Beginners

Hello readers! Hope you enjoyed the last post about Iron man in real life! This time we will be exploring a slightly different topic.

These days we hear more and more people becoming 'software engineers'. So what do these people do? Well, they write software. Duh. Right, but there's more to it. People who do not have any ambition of going into this field are often completely unaware of programming. This creates a wide gap between the programmers, who are very talented, and the rest, who can't tell the difference between a For Loop and a For-Each Loop (What's that? You can't either? Don't worry, it doesn't matter unless you are a professional programmer anyway...)

If you're one of these non-programmers, then you probably don't realize that programming can actually be fun and interesting. And who knows, you might discover a hidden talent for programming within yourself! In this post I will introduce you to what are in my opinion three of the simplest programming languages that you must learn as a beginner.

BASIC

QBasic's interface

As you might know, BASIC stands for Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, which is just a posh phrase for 'Beginner's Programming Language' (But BPL doesn't have quite the same ring to it...). In my opinion, this is the first language anyone must learn. I'm not going into the technicalities of the programming language here, but I'll just say that it's certainly the simplest 'real' language around (there are many others that claim this title, they are not fully functional ones...). There are many versions of BASIC, but all of them are nearly the same.

Let's just start with an example. Here's a program that accepts two numbers as input and displays their product. Here goes:

CLS

INPUT a

INPUT  c

LET c = a *b

PRINT c

That's so easy that a child could understand it. On the other hand if you had to do it in a so-called advanced language like C, this is what you would type:

#include

#include

int main()

{

int a, b, c;

scanf ("%d %d", &a, &b);

c = a * b;

Printf ("%d", c);

}

It seems pointless, doesn't it? Well the truth is languages like C and C++ have complicated syntax but are more flexible than basic languages. But we needn't worry about that here...

Now the problem is, BASIC has been obsolete for years now. I am running Windows 8, and I can't even get QBasic (a popular version on BASIC) to run for me. So sadly, though this is a simple language, it is dead. It's not worth learning. I just mentioned it here because it deserves some respect for inspiring the modern version of BASIC. That's right, while the old DOS based compilers have been phased out, Microsoft (who else?) has created an amazing new language based on BASIC called Visual Basic. More on that later.

If you wan't to try out QBasic for yourself, I won't stop you. You can download it here, though it does not run for me, and there are no guarantees. I recommend you try one of the new releases of BASIC like freeBASIC.

Python

A Python Program

Now, here's a language worth learning. Python is more advanced than BASIC, yet not as heavy and complicated as C, C++ and Java. Also, Python is fun to learn. It gives you the thrill of writing programs and see them come to life before your eyes, albeit as lines of text. Well you can't say they are much further up the ladder than BASIC at first sight, but this is a really powerful language. It gets this power from 'modules', importable add-on packages that add functionality to your program. You can discover which modules to use by using Python's built in help function.

By seeing the picture above, you might have gathered that this is a modern language, in fact many people are employed in high paying jobs, programming using Python.

Firstly, here's an example. I wrote a program to print the multiplication table of the specified number.

The Source Code

The Output

You can download Python (It's free) from here.

Some excellent Python tutorials are available here and here.

Over to the last one...

Visual Basic .NET

One of My VB .NET Applications in Progress

Now this is by far my favourite programming language. You can make amazing applications so good, it will look professionally made. Visual Basic .NET is a major change from what we've seen so far, because the programming interface itself is completely different. The text-only interface is replaced with a beautiful drag-and-drop programming environment. You can experiment and move things around, and basically the looks are separated from the code. You design the visual interface first, and then write the code.

The code is in many ways similar to the BASIC code we saw earlier. But the visual environment reduces the need for code. Indeed, you will find yourself writing less code, and focusing on the looks of your program, which in my opinion is very important.

No words can describe the joy and satisfaction one gets from programming in VB .NET. You just have to try it out for yourself. As for an example, why don't you check out my HandCricket for PC game that I created using VB .NET and posted on this very blog? It can be found here.

My VB .NET HandCricket Game.

By taking one look at the image, you can see that the apps that can be created are visually very appealing. Another thing about VB .NET is that it even caters to the need of advanced developers; as you become more proficient, you will discover more and more new and useful features. It is my recommendation that anyone with an interest in learning to program learn VB .NET.

Visual Basic .NET comes as part of Microsoft Visual Studio, a grand package of three programming languages : Visual Basic, Visual C# (C Sharp) and Visual C++. Unfortunately, Visual Studio is not free. It's terribly expensive, with an emphasis on terribly. The Professional edition costs a great Rs. 23,706. The Ultimate edition costs a whopping Rs. 6,31,782 ! (When I first saw that, I wondered if I was reading the digits right!). It's no wonder Microsoft is experiencing so much piracy. If only they would reduce the prices...

Of course, there is a way out. Just download a pirated copy from here via torrents. There really is no other way. Imagine paying 6 Lakhs for a 1.5 GB program! And yes, one of the best tutorials for VB .NET can be found here.

Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed my post, and I certainly hope you take an interest in programming after this. That's all for today's post. Have a nice day!