If you're referring to desktop software, then Visual Basic .NET is a good choice. It's popular, (relatively) easy to learn, and plenty powerful. You can download the Express version of the IDE for free...

Visual Basic 2010 Express | Microsoft Visual Studio

If you're interested in web-based software, on the other hand, then there's pretty much nothing you can't do with PHP & MySQL (however, you should know at least the basics of HTML and CSS before you dive into PHP). And depending on your needs, you might want to learn a little Javascript too.

Are your programs meant to be for online/internet?

If so, I would have to suggest the most popular language of php and Mysql for database.

It really depends on what you want to do, there are different tools for the job. For example if you want to fix a leaky sink you would not use a hammer, if you want to hang a sign you would not use a wrench. In order to get a good response you need to provide details.

If you want to make sure it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux then Java is the way to go.

I want to make a software for IM...like a software that can connect to facebook and do the work that I have programmed in it, like liking fan pages automatically up-to a limit... and bla bla!

If you are looking for an application then i think c# is the best language to make any software

Java is good and easy to learn....

This is by far the BEST order to learn programming: I know HTML isn't really a programming language but I think its important to learn first because its used everywhere.

1. HTML/CSS
2. JAVA
3. RUBY
4. PYTHON
5. C# C++
6. PHP/JAVASCRIPT/JQUERY

These will allow you to develop software online and offline. I done a lot of research on your question for myself and this was the overall average consensus of most programmers I spoke to. Good luck.

I think that I should go with PHP,MYSQL and C#.

A14: Word of advice, before you start check if there's nothing like that out there already. There are some pieces of software doing just that, so depending on the features it might not be worth the effort... except being a good programming exercise, for sure!

Cheers,
Rob

Hmmm, it really depends for what purpose you want to have your software. Like for the instance if you want to create Windows application so there is only one answer Visual basic with .NET framework.
If you want to have hosted solution developed then you will have to choose PHP, well it is widely used everywhere, but it all depends on what product you want to get started. Like we use Perl for our solutions controlling the Xen virtualization, but the front end is based on PHP, so you really need to determinate what you want to develop in order to select the right programming language.

For Windows:
Something in the Visual Studio arsenal (ie VB.net)

Multi Platform:
Java

Easy programming language does not exist btw. To even be a mediocre programmer You'll need to learn the logic, and put in the hours.

You're learning a Language after all, even if it is for programming.

Does it depends on what the software's target market is? Is it for mobile, web, desktop?

Making websites, I'd pick PHP or Rails (Just started to learn this)
If you want a long-term career, Java
If you want the big bucks, Rails, SAP, Java
If mobile is where you want to be, its HTML5 or whatever the native language of chosen mobile (ie. Objective C, C#, Java, etc)

visual basic is the best

PHP+MySQL is the best

Visual basic.NET is easy to learn and very helpful in software developing.

Before asking this question decide which kind of software you want to develop

- websites / intranet sites
- desktop applications
- mobile application (iphone / android / microsoft phone)

For websites you have to choice if you want to run on an linux/apache or windows/iis

For desktop application you have tochoice between operating systems

For mobile applications you have to choice the kind of mobile phones you want to support

There is not 1 tool / developer environment / programming language that can handle anything.

Also a hint the learning curve for becoming a developer is kind of steep and long

Hello A14,

If you want to program desktop applications, I'd go with real basic.
It's very easy to learn, has plenty of features AND in the end it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

If you want to develop web apps I'd go with PHP as it has a huge community, is easy to learn&use and used by most websites.

Hope that helped you.

Greetings

For online apps I would use php MySql and Jquery. I love php! It was very easy to learn as well. A lot of my friends are getting into Java and C#.

.net framework is easier to use.

Hello..
I go for .Net..is allow to do work in a different computing platform and its completely based on OOPs concept..

lol, people always pretend or else wish there is a technology just floating out there that they can simply pick up, and in a few weeks or months, presto, they will be developing their own software.

Seriously, if you even need to be asking this question, you should not even be worried about what platform or technology you should be using. You are not going to learn to engineer software in under two years if you're not even aware of the choices that are out there. You should instead start focusing on the fundamentals of any programming language. Don't even think about software engineering yet.

Vb.net is my all time favourite language,it's really easy.and it's best for programming.

Frankly speaking from my past experience give less time to learn HTML & CSS and dedicate more time to PHP coz php resolves your maximum problem and highly flexible and dynamic too with any kind of browser. No compatibility issues as your facebook is also designed on PHP part too.

According to my Opinion Java Script is used for Softwares. Well there are lots Other also.

Java would do, since you are building a IM software you should also have a web-based system that your software can communicate too..

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1) C#
2) J2EE
3) Ruby on Rails
4) Phyton

It really depends on what kind of applications you want to make

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Programmers love the technology they work on...so the answers you get will always be varied and different. Some will say PHP is best while others will say Java is great. It all depends on who you ask.

HTML and CSS are not programming languages. If think the easiest one to learn is defenitely PHP.

beware of "reinventing the wheel" syndrome.
Before starting your project, I'd make sure it wasn't done before, and that there's a need for it,
so you don't build something which nobody wants/needs to use.

Secondly, you might get a bit of a break if you find something similar which is open sourced, or which you could reuse parts of the code. There are great high-quality pieces of code which are open-sourced. Ok, sometimes it's best to start from scratch, but sometimes you get a bit of a push from an existing code base, which you then build upon.

Lastly, the more layers of abstraction you use and the farther you move away from the processor (with abstractions), the faster you can push out your code. ... ok, what I mean is that writing some functionality in assembler will be X times more time consuming than writing it in a scripting language because it is a higher level of abstraction (python, etc), but the assembler will be way faster because you're writing "closer" to the processor.
But processor these days are so fast that you should not concern yourself with your code speed as with your productivity ... hence prototype in something like python, then (if needed only) optimize your code bottlenecks in a lower-level language like C/C++/assembler.
But your first step is to get out a working prototype as soon as possible (so you can test your various assertions and not waste your time) ... hence: python (my choice) or similar

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To be honest to learn making software you could start learning HTML & CSS first, then VB.NET, then C# and then C++. When you understand C++ good then you are able to make almost any kind of software. Just remember, you won't learn this all in just a month, it takes time and effort.

I vote up for "VB.NET"

It varies from one developer to another, question is that whom you targeting.

I will vote for .net language which is a Microsoft product and very useful language for developing desktop applications for clients and if we want to develop web applications them PHP is the best choice for it.

You have to study the basic, so C is easy comparing to c++ or c#

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If you choose desktop application so must be choose to vb.net.
If you choose web application with cms base then you learn Wordpress,Zoomla or Durpal.
Otherwise you learn html,css and php.also must be phpmyadmin.

For software development C# and Java are the best.

Java ,
try it ,fully object oriented and secured .
Better for stand alone and networking soft.

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BASICA is easy to learn, so is GWBASIC and QBASIC , and you can certainly write software with them. Get my point?

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I'll go for open source language.

c++is the best language for making softwaresandveryeasyto learn