I know HTML, but i want to move away from that and go into a langauge like VB, C, ...etc. i was wondering what language i should learn and why.

What do you want to achieve? What is your background? Do you actually have the money to pay for some developer tools?

If you want to write casual Windows snippets then you may want to learn/use VB even though everyone will laugh at you. For simple things in Unix world you can use Perl or TCL.

If you want to get into "serious" programming you want to learn Java and then move on to C++.

If you want to write real applications right away, you may like Delphi..

I would say Visual Basic. I was suprised at how easy it was to learn quickly.

J (an array processing interpreted language)

Because if you go to jsoftware.com you can see if they're giving free licences (I'm fairly sure they are). If so, you can try it and if you don't like it you haven't wasted any money. Here's a quick simple example showing how you can get the mean of 4 numbers:

(+/%#) 10 13 11 12
11.5

That's copied and pasted from the execution window, you can also make scripts.

There's a helpful forum at jsoftware.com with some very bright people contributing. One contributor 'signs' his emails with a single line of code which runs 'life' (a 'game' which illustrates cellular automata). If you've any questions I'd suggest signing up to the forum, also it's easy to check the archives in case questions have already been asked.

Good luck

Listen to this VERY carefully.

-Learn the basics of C.
-Move on to Java.

(Additionally, it would be VERY desireable for you to learn about relational databases, SQL, and how to use JDBC to use databases in your Java code.)

Sorry Acid, but Visual Basic is pants. C++ is very good, but hard to use well. Java is cross platform, and will do just about anything you want. C will teach you just about everything you need to know to go on to learn C++, Java, Perl, Python, Shell Scipts, C#. Forget about VB, its crappy.

Learning C will be the key to learning lots of other stuff, and will give you the ability to work with other languages without too much hassle. It will teach you all about datatypes, arrays, ifs, for loops, logic statements, with a syntax that you will see repeated over and over and over again in languages like C++, Java, Perl, Python, Shell Scipts, C#.

There is a book called "A book on C" by people called Kelly and Pohl. Buy it and work your way through the exercises.

I was in a position like you several years ago, where I knew I had to learn to program to do some of the things I wanted to do, but I had no idea where to start. I got advice from people who had been into programming for decades - people who taught programming in universites and suchlike. I have just repeated THEIR advice above. It was good advice, believe me. Listen to it.

What about Basic or power basic
I have it, but havn't the time right now to learn
Vb is easy foxpro is another data compiler right?
and you ask why? amaze your friends blow up there computors
focus on your area of happyness.

Phantasm66, your advice sounds very good but I have a few questions. I heard C is pretty difficult to learn, and also very complex. I wondering how long it might take to learn. Since i am a student i can not indefinatly dedicate any time to it, although i would plan to slowly work on it maybe a few hours (5) a week. what effect would this have? 2nd. by the basics of c what exactly do you mean, and i found "a book on c" on amazon through another seller for 1.67 new. used going for about 50cents. this book is possiblyan old version, i also found the new version (4th edition) for about 45 dollars. but it was somthing like 750 pages. comparedto 350. while the unknown edition is apparently published in '84. would it matter what one i bought? im sure the content is newer and all, but how much has changed, would it be more benifcial to have the newer version. and my last question, are there any good books on java that you could suggest? thank yo, that first post was helpful.

(im not sure if the actual book i would buy would be a 1984, becuase they might just be listing them there incorrectly, but i am assuming 1984 as the oldest)
(all figures in USD)
links:
(1984) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-4449532-4470253?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
(4th ed.) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-4449532-4470253?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

the book would be first edition copyright 1984.