Thread: Where do I start? Learning computer language

C

If you're planning to go into that field then C is a must-know. Almost all programming now-a-days is done in C++. Since you've never had proper classes then I assume that you've never done OOP, which is difficult to teach yourself so C would be the best bet, since C++ is a derivation of C. Java is also OOP, which would make it hard to learn and very few applications are written in it.

You mentioned games. Almost all game engine are written in C, it's the fastest and in gaming speed is everything. The ones that aren't OpenGL use C++, but it's a decreasing amount and will soon become the minority.

Since you're good a BASIC I might recommend an opensource project called FreeBasic. It's a Windows/Linux upgrade to the old QBasic, but much more powerful, I use it from time to time and it's very easy to code it. It's also a good gateway to C because it has a GNU back end and has syntax and commands very similar to C.