C# . Yeah, but...

Ok - I've decided on C# as the language to learn well. I don't really know how to choose between languages, its a classic problem of too much information. What criteria should I use?

I decided on C# because lots of people are using it, and lots of financial firms are using it, and because Repast, an agent based modeling project, has extensions in C#.

Also and probably most importantly, it has a VIDEO series on how to program, which has several videos on how to use the IDE. Java, where are you my man? C++, can't you do something like this?

Most books start you using notebook files and the command prompt!! And then, you don't write any working code for a few chapters. Lets face it, using 1980s technology is a big, big turnoff to learning a language. Why would you want to simulate a black screen with white letters on todays computers, for any reason?

And IDEs, when you are a newbie, are totally confusing because they are so helpful to experienced users. Why don't they have a video game that teaches you the IDE? Learning to use the IDE teaches basics of programming at the same time!! And Jave, C++, you just don't get it do you.

Sorry, this is my rant about learning to program. I don't think there is any other creative outlet in the world that insists on such a huge, huge learning curve just to get the basics. Ok, there may not be any widely used human behavior that has such a steep learning curve. Think about how much further along in programming we would be if the start wasn't so confusing. It turns off many, many people.

I always tell people about learning the guitar, that the first 6 months are the most difficult. With programming, conceptually, OOP is really useful and easy(Summary: if it takes more than a page of code or doesn't work yet, write another method or property. If you can't do something, write pretend code that says you can, then refer to rule one) , its only learning the language and IDE that is difficult in any way at all. So I chose C# because there was a very good tutorial on how to get started.