Editor’s note: This is a Guest Post from Oyelaja Adebambo Oyekan, CEO of Cybernator Solutions. He is a software developer and is about to launch a social networking site called Benebo. The article is aimed at providing tips and advice on how wannabe software developers can choose the best programming languages.

Many times on forums and in chat rooms I hear the same question over and over. “What programming language should I learn?” The answer is different for every person out there that wants to pick up programming.

Here are tips to help people who would like to start programming pick out their first language. 

Set a Goal

First you must really sit down and think about what you want to accomplish when programming. Do you want to make cool web applications, or maybe a quick windows application to calculate the amount of paint needed for a room? How about creating video games or your own operating system. Maybe you want the option to try all these things, and if you want any of these things there is a programming language for you. You just need to figure out what your needs and wants are. Do some of your own research on some popular languages and find out what they offer.

Know the Difficulty Level

Next you must decide on the level of difficulty you are willing to try. Never be afraid to try something harder than you think you can handle. If it is too much for you, you will know early enough to pick out a new language and not waste too much time. Most languages are the same at their roots anyways. You will find this out once you learn how to program.

Check for Compatibility

Another thing you want to consider before picking out a language is compatibility. Do you need or want your application to work on Windows, Linux, and Mac? Or are you comfortable with just running on Windows or another environment? Most of the time this will be an easy choice. Since you are just starting out you will most likely just pick a language that will run on your current operating system.

Ask yourself:

• Are my going to be able to find a lot of information about the language?
• What types of books, internet tutorials, and documentation are there available for your language? You are going to need something to learn from and documentation is the main thing you will be looking to.

Though it is always nice to have a good community around the language as well, most online communities are on forums or IRC. Remember that Google is your friend. Just look up your language on Google to find tutorials.

Type of Language

There are three main types of languages (there maybe more). First is web languages. Web languages are the code that makes up the web. When you open your Internet browser such as Internet Explorer or FireFox, it reads this code and then displays the sites based on the instructions that are written behind the scenes.

Next are interpreted languages. Many web languages also fall in this category. When a language is interpreted it means that the code is read by the computer as it is executed. This is unlike our next type called a compiled language.

When a language is compiled it means that you must first pass the source code threw a special program called a compiler. The compiler takes the human readable source code and turns it into computer readable code of ones and zeros. The program can now be ran and tested.

Level of Language

Computers do not understand source code; they only understand 1s and 0s. When a language is said to be a low level language it means that the source code is more closely related to the ones and zeros. If a language is high level it means it is closer to human readable language.

The benefits of a lower level language is speed and power. The problem is you wouldn’t want to write an entire game in a low level language because it would be large and hard to understand. Also do not stress too much over what language to pick. If you are just a hobbyist then pick whatever language you enjoy the most. Don’t worry about what’s cool or the newest thing go with what works for you.

If you want to become a programmer or get into the information technology, field pick a language that is going to let you learn the most about programming. Odds are you are going to be learning new languages later on anyways. So as long as you have programming basics, and techniques down you will be able to learn a new language very easy. The most important part is to have fun!