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Hey! I dunno if anyone has suggested yet (but I will totally not read through all the comments) but, aside from Coursera, a website called Khan Academy has not only online courses for several things, but a few opportunities for you to learn coding as well!

Here you can learn several different languages of computer programming (and it's pretty easy and fun!): https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

And here you can do one hour of code:
https://www.khanacademy.org/hourofcode

That's right, you just go in there and code for an hour (either a webpage or even a drawing!).

So yeah, just create an account and dive right in. I really like Khan Academy myself (although I don't use it too much for coding) and I'm sure you will too!

Cheers and good luck,

Coraline <3

PS: My dad's a programmer from the old days, and I can guarantee you that, even though time has passed since then, programming is useful for a lot of things, from logical thinking to doing your own gigs. So really, dive right in. (:

hmm, i'm using matlab. but not really for programming ;)
good luck in whatever track you decide to follow. not getting a job is a bummer

thanks for creating the thread. I would have made similar thread in couple of days..I'm gonna piggybackride. :3

View attached image.

A lot of really good stuff in this thread. Here's my 2 cents on learning to program and starting a career with it.

If you want to do games, start with Python. Then do C++, which is useful for writing game engines. Also, some low level graphics coding, like writing shaders and such, is done in C-like languages, which will be easier to learn if you know C++. Others have mentioned several sites for learning these.

If you want to do business apps, start with Java or C#. Both are in demand, and they have similar syntax, so if you need to switch, it's not too intimidating. Later on, study C++ to learn what's going on under the hood for the other languages. It's' also useful if you work for a software company rather than an IT department. Some universities around here use Greenfoot for teaching Java. It's a simplified IDE and API you can download for free. There is a 93USD text to go with it, but there are plenty of tutorials available online. For C#, download the free Visual Studio Community Edition. The Code Project is a good place to look for tutorials. The next thing you'll need to know is SQL for database programming. You can get the basics of ANSI SQL, which is common across most database systems (like MS, SAP & Oracle), at W3Schools. There are oodles of tutorials available for free for all three languages.

There are many web frameworks and you could easily pick one, go for it, and be successful. But a grounding in HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript will help with learning any framework, and will often get you just as far. Also SQL, for business websites. While you're learning JavaScript, remember that it is in no way related to Java, except the syntax is the same. No reason to hate Java because of JavaScript, cuz you will hate JavaScript. There is also a pretty good JavaScript primer at W3Schools.

An advantage to developing in an IT department or for a business software developer is that you meet with your users up front to find out what their needs are, then program to meet those needs. This is a much better scenario for success (though not a guarantee) because you're not guessing what the users want and you usually know the client will be purchasing before you even start work. With game development, you don't usually know what your users want, you make what you want and hope they like it. And, unless you work for a AAA shop, or get a hefty Kickstarter, your income depends almost entirely upon sales. During development, you don't have much of that (sales). Working for a business, you have hourly or salary pay, so if you put 6 months into a project that's cancelled, you still got paid. Put 6 months into a failed indie game and you will not be sleeping as well. Don't get me wrong, business jobs can still be volatile, but there is still more stability than an indie game shop. Oh, and I'm not talking about working for startups either. That can be more hobby-like than game development. The other thing is that I've heard authors say the first million words you write are trash. I think Greenlight is evidence that this is also true with game development. It is for business, too, but business can absorb your trash as long as it works. I also think that mentoring helps mitigate this, both in games and in business. Anyway, all my somewhat biased opinion. Just something to consider when evaluating a new career.

No matter which way you go, StackOverflow is one of your best friends.

According to my college Pascal is a simple language and will help you get through other languages easily. I'd rather dig right in..
However, if you wanted to learn a language for the purpose of programming games/applications on pc, then C++ and Java.

Not programming. What i can recommend is to try and learn motion graphics or just design. If you get good, in after affects as an example. You can create your own website to sell your easy to modify presentations. You would be amazed how well those sell.

Hmm, no one mentioned, but you could learn Cobol (the bank sector uses it a lot) but is not as "cool" as others.... In my city we have some kind of "high school" that offers a lot of "free" (the goverment pays them) courses for unemployed people, they have a lot of courses from different companies: IBM, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, RedHat, Sap. Maybe where you live you have something like here :)

Java, C++/C and C# are my recommendations.
Why?
Because that are the three most common languages, so you can easily find tutorials, addons and a job if you want to work for a company.
C++ is a little bit harder to learn but on the other side it is more powerful.

I'd say start with something such as FORTRAN or Python or equivalent, to easily play around with logic, algorithms and lots of numbers/data. (probably you should just go for python)
Then just as one uses English, get into C++ for what's important. There may be exceptions, such as making a website or easily manipulating OS stuff, or using Batch to quickly do something "simple", etc.
A bit of advice is, never expect anything when programming, as in how easy or complicated or how long something is or can take. Sometimes you may need to waste 4 hours to find the answer to do something which otherwise would take 5 minutes. And never expect anything to work at the first try.
I think this is the pragmatic approach.

Think Python.

Personally, I code in Java and almost nothing else, but I really should look into expanding.
I would recommend Python, I hear it has a bunch of stuff built in for you that makes it easier to learn.
Java also has some nice stuff built in if you want to be more "mainstream", definitely a lot easier to grasp than C or C++.
There really is no "best language", each language specializes in something in its own way (that's why languages keep being created!)

I think the most important thing to know is but the programming concepts. Once you understand these, you should be able to adapt to a new language easier.

There are many, many people out there that have gone into a programming profession without a programming background. The really nice thing about it is that there's so many resources online that you can basically teach yourself. I would start off small. Don't be too ambitious and create your own game or something, because that may be too big of a commitment and result in you giving up.

codemonkey.com
reddit.com/r/dailyprogramming

Good luck!

You could start with C and then move up to C++ or Java.
If you interested in game development, try C#, Unity uses it for scripting (Unity uses Javascript as well, but C# is better in this case)
If you're interested in Android apps (general apps, not games) you should learn Java, and Objective C for iOS.

On the other side, perhaps you could play with Construct2 and make games without programing. There's a free version on Steam that you can use and it is a very complete tool. Then you can buy a developer license if you really mean to publish your game.

Mind you that very few games this days are created by hand (I mean, just programing). Most of it are made with Unity or similar engines.

If its about getting skills for a job i'd suggest to check what the market 'wants'. Otherwise the question what you want to archieve. How about getting some creative skills and perhaps start learning to work with basic cad construction / basic modelling. Since 3d printing this is a handy skill to have and creatives are also sought in the gaming industry. If you feel you want to dive into some webprogramming: check php. You want to create some smaller desktop apps why not python? Dabbling with servers? Perl or JS (pronounce node.js). Android? Java! Creating simple games on win, perhaps else platforms? Some game basic variant, possibly blitz basic. AGF or else. If you want to get a linux crack: learn ansi-c then proceed to learns c++. Doing serious calculation?. Enter matlab! Being the cool kid? Learn ruby, rust or scala. Hope that helped ^^

If you're completely new to programming, start with Python, easy to learn and easy syntax. There's a few good books and videos you can find online just by searching, and you can also use an interactive website like CodeCademy to help you learn. Doesn't matter whether you start with Python 2.7 or 3 since both are similar but I would assume 3 would be used more in the future.