One of these years I would like to learn how to program. Anyone have any suggestions on where to start? Language? A class?

I would recommend Python. It's easy to pick up and get going. No worries about frameworks, compilers, etc.

 

Beyond that, C++ is pretty critical for most commercial applications.

If Windows application development, I would say C#.

For web development, PHP is probably the most useful.

 

So you have some ideas. The best approach: find a project you want to work on and go. It's always good to have that motivation and you really do learn the most by doing.

Hey thanks for the reply and advice. Some of the stuff I would be interested in are MODs and TCs such as the Rebellion 2 or Rebellion Reloaded projects. It would probably be some time before I could help but Perhaps I could alter my own game at least.

I wouldn't call TCs for Rebellion programming. In fact, all it is mostly is just image replacement. RebED can do most of it for you. The rest can be done with a DLL editor.

 

I would suggest starting from our HowTo guide

http://www.swrebellion.com/contentid-11.html

Programming is best learnt from doing it yourself. Books are a fantastic help and online tutorials as well. When you start learning programming, I found that most languages are basically very similar but use different syntax. There are lots of technical differences behind them but that doesnt usually matter too much.

 

When I first started it was a language called Pascal, from there moved into working in Java, C, C++ and finally I'm working in C#.

 

Personally, Java/C is a good place to start though I have heard people say they can be hard languages to learn. The best thing about these two however is that the available knowledge on both will be incredible(both in written form and on the net) and you will most likely find people willing to help you learn.

 

So, I'd say pick one, hire a book from your local library and do the basic easy problems. Its all about experience and time put in as I learnt far more coding my own Rebellion 2 attempt than I ever did at University.