First, easy programming language?

I have a friend who dislikes programming, but I can tell that he would be a good programmer. He's not even very fond of knowing about computers more intimately than to operate them as he needs, but he's pretty easy to convince, and I just don't know which language to recommend him.

I have experience in LISP, and while it's good, I don't think it would be an ideal language. Haskell, FORTRAN, COBOL, Scheme are all undoable. I'm really looking for one to get him into the mindset and idea of programming, so even as good as C is, I don't think it's a very good language to start him on.

Maybe python, or perhaps ruby? Any other ones that are possibly easier?

2/10

Lisp for fucks sake. There is no other ideal language for you

>>2
Oh c'mon. Can't I get some extra points for the hard work I put in it?

PYTOn

python

INTERCAL.


PLEASE.

PureBasic.

Java or C. They aren't as hard as people make it seem.

Have you considered ^bbcode?

I'll probably agree with >>9. He could try something like C, Pascal or Java or C# as a first language. Regardless of which he chooses, he should eventually learn C, and possibly some assembler and read a good book on computer architecture. After that he should read SICP, and learn some Lisp (be it Scheme or Common Lisp, or preferably both). He might also want to try some ML or Haskell as well to get a taste for staticly typed languages with type inference. After that he'll probably end up writing most of his code in some high-level language of his choice (like CL, Haskell, Scheme... or if he wants to be a code monkey, C#, Java or even PHP if he lacks any taste), and the rest of it in a mix of lower-level languages (C, Assembly...).

Of course, you could just disregard that and try to find out what he dislikes about programming. I think that will be the key to finding out what language you should recommend to him.

I used to write most of my code in C with a mix of assembly, and while it was easy to do, I used to find it tedious and I can't quite say I enjoy writing out things at such a low level as I only rarely need that much control. After that I've tried a variety of high-level languages, but the most enjoyable one so far has been Common Lisp, and I've yet to find something that I enjoy coding in more. Currently I write most of my code in CL, and a bit of C and assembly on the side.

I don't know about your friend but I hate most programming as well. The only thing I love about programming is tackling difficult scenarios in pseudocode or creating ingenious algorithms for resource intensive calculations. Actually implementing my work is a tedious annoying job almost as tedious as trying to learn a language in first place.

In any case I suggest C. You can't go wrong with C. It's perhaps the most general-purpose of all languages.

Try Scheme, with this introductory book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

>>9
No-one claims that Java or C is hard, but that they are tedious to program with

>>14
I've yet to come across a programming language that isn't somehow tedious to work with.  The reason for the tedium just changes based on what design paradigm the language employs or enforces which also changes the chance rate of encountering the tedium.

>>15
Maybe so, but they are more tedious than most