I remember when I first started in computers the most common question (after can you fix my computer?) was "What is the best language to learn?"
Even as a C/C++ programmer I never felt comfortable suggestion a n00b start on such languages. Delphi/Pascal came to mind but wasn't as readily available.
Finally, I am comfortable making a recommendation. And like all my opinions, these are well reasoned, clearly thought out, and obviously 100% correct, and if you disagree, you are probably wrong about other things too :)
So my current answer is Python.
I am open to opinions and experiences. Discussion anyone?
@ITwrx it used to be that if you wanted to learn you might pick up BASIC, or if you wanted to pay for a compiler you used Pascal. Or if you were a follower of Knuth you learned Mix for which I don't think there is an acatual compiler or interpretter. So, I am thinking as a "Hey, this computer stuff might be neat, maybe I should learn some coding" Python seems like a great first program starting point.
Did you see @freemo puzzle? It was quite an interesting task, but when ti was done, more interesting was tryign to write it in something. I live in C all day, so of course I chose python :)
@ITwrx if recommending something to a n00b I like to keep to the things that I know will be able to support their learning process. Everyone that graduates with a masters degree seems to write a new language. So there are new ones all the time.
@ITwrx it is on Rosetta code, but near as I can see it is still young enough that it is a sub 1.0 version. Are there good turtoials like Python, and lots of current users and existing codebases and libraries to make life for a n00b easier :)