I want to pick up programming.

[Dm]

So. Long story short, I want to pick up a programming language and learn it. However, I know absolutely nothing about any programming language or concept or anything, at all, at all, period. I even suck at distinguishing between "Software" and "Hardware". Basically, I know nothing. I'm starting from zero and am willing to devour any information and accept any help.

To those of you that know something, I've been wondering if you could give me some tips about where I could begin, or even some sites that you tried and know could help out someone who's just starting out, et cetera. Any help you could offer is already a bonus for me.

I know this is short as hell but it takes all my courage just to write this much. Doesn't look like it but I'm extremely shy. Just the fact I'm asking for help already shows how much I'm serious about this. So if you help even a bit, thanks. It means a lot.

[Chapuz]

The language you should learn first depends on WHAT you want to program. If it's a browser game I would say a very basic of HTML and then full JavaScript.
If it's web design, then full HTML at first, with basic JavaScript and then CSS.

There are pther people that can tell you more languages for more sort of things. For downloadable games maybe Java, but I'm not entirely sure what else.

[Dm]

Any programming exercise you think is easy, I'd be willing to try out. I don't mind making a browser game with the very basic of HTML and then moving to JavaScript. I'm not that much interested in web design, although I admit I haven't read much about it.

[andretimpa]

Since you know nothing I'd recommend something simple, so that you can focus more on the concepts and the language doesn't get in the way so much.

Python would be my suggestion, it doesn't have weird features (that will confuse you once you move to something else) like javascript, it's less unforgiving with mistakes than Java and the program won't spend so much time blowing up on your face like on C/C++. It also requires you to keep the code minimally organized and you can move to OO programming once you are confortable.

You can google how to get things installed and tutorials.

[Efreet]

I learned a lot from these two websites.

I'm no master, but I at least got a handle on python using the later one. Then again, I'm not sure if this language in particular is fitting for your purposes, but at least khan academy is great for beginners since it gives them something very basic but interactive to play with.

When I was first learning it didn't feel as boring with khan academy as it did with python, although python does have a logo-style drawing tool in it as well, if you find the resources to use it somewhere.

https://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python

Of course, nobody can hold your hand, but just as long as you have the drive, you can learn quickly with these resources. I got the gist of it in a manner of weeks.

[ZephyrPhantom]

The majority of what I'd recommend has been already said by everyone else, but if you want something, really, -really- basic level that starts off with just the concepts (no serious programming), then you may want to consider Scratch; programming functions are instead represented as 'blocks' that you can gradually build on to make more complex functions. I don't remember if you could manually code anything there, but if you just want to get a general feel for how programming works before you delve into a language, I think this is an ideal starting point. If you're confident enough to delve into an actual language, like Python or Java/C/C++, feel free to skip my recommendation and go with what everyone else has said.

Since no one else has linked it yet, I'll also put http://www.w3schools.com/ here for your reference.

[Dm]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I'll definitely be looking into Python and Scratch. Thanks for all the links. If anyone else has anything more to add, please do. I'm still willing to listen.

Of course, nobody can hold your hand, but just as long as you have the drive, you can learn quickly with these resources.

Don't worry, I'll learn it. I'll definitely learn it. Even if it takes one year to learn it, I'll do it.

You have no idea how serious I am.

EDIT : Realized I've used scratch before. Interesting. Time to look at it more seriously now.

[Pineapple]

http://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/pythonarn quickly with these resources. I got the gist of it in a manner of weeks.

Definitely recommending these series of exercises. It's IMO the best place to start, though you can also do it later to bridge the gap between concepts and actually writing code.

[Chapuz]

Just asking, I know nothing about Python. What is it good for? What advantages/disadvantages does it have to make downloadable stuff or browser stuff with other languages like Java and JS?

[Aknelo]

The only programming I ever played around with is scratch, as Zblader mentioned or the Khan Academy tutorials. 

Out of the two, I think Khan Academy is the one that actually felt like I was programming something, and using programming language.  I plan to go back to it some more when I have some free time 

[Gandora]

I finished most courses of the aforementioned Codecademy website. Some courses are better than others. I would not recommend Python as starter there but it is a good language to start with.

I haven't looked much into the following website yet, but it seems very elaborate and to contain lots of information.
Supposedly it also has tutorials etc, so either use it as reference or maybe you find something easy to start with.

[andretimpa]

Just asking, I know nothing about Python. What is it good for? What advantages/disadvantages does it have to make downloadable stuff or browser stuff with other languages like Java and JS?

It's a scripting language like JS that gets interpreted on the fly. It's not so useful for browsers because only firefox has a plugin to run it. On server side it's the base of the django platform. For desktop applications it's good for lightweight applications (using the pure language) or heavier stuff (using wrappers for things implemented in C).

The advantage/disadvantage is that it takes a tenth of the time to write the corresponding Java/C/C++ program but it takes 10 times longer to run (unless you use wrapper libraries heavily). There is also a library for almost anything you can imagine.

But the reason I'm recommending it is because it's simple.