Re: programming languages
Woah,
Ok, let me chip in here.
You want to write applications for Windows that aren't necessarily games, which as you correctly say rules out BGT.
I will urge you to immediately forget Pascal. Although there are still people that use this language, it is starting to become a nitch language and is falling out of use.
Now you offer up some interesting options, but are missing a few key players. Let me outline your choices first:
Basic
Basic itself is too old to actually work with in this day and age, although there are some variants out there that are made to work on modern operating systems. One of the more popular ones is PureBasic, which has been used , for example, by Ghorthalon. This is a viable option, but not the easiest to start with as a beginner in my opinion because the community for it , although large, isn't nearly as big as more mainstream alternatives. Which brings me neatly to:
c#:
C#, or C-Sharp, is a language which talks to the huge windows library called the .NET framework. Together with Visual Basic .NET, this is one of the biggest languages out there right now for pure Windows application development. It is easy to learn in that it is easy to get a basic application with an actual graphical user interface going from chapter one of every tutorial you will find on the language. Visual Studio, the preferred program to write these applications, has recently become free for everyone, making the entry threshold considerably smaller.
c++:
C++ is a very powerful applications level programming language, however the learning curve is rather steep. I won't discourage you from learning it, but it will not be easy.
Java:
I hesitate to include Java in this list, because to actually write applications in Java that run in the Windows operating system you need to know quite a bit,
especially if you want them to be accessible. However, it is sort of c++'s easier big brother and it is very widely used. It is the primary language to write Android applications, for example.
Python:
Python is a very, very readable language, and that is one of its strong points. This makes the learning curve for the language very gentle and it's very easy to get started with it. I recommend this to all beginners of programming.
In closing:
- If you just want to write Windows applications with a user interface quickly and without fuss, .NET languages like c# and visual basic .NET are your best bet.
If you want to know a bit more next to just quickly cobbling windows applications together, I recommend you start with Python.
I hope that helps. Don't hestitate to ask if you have more questions.
Balliol
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