Any programmers in here?

[Pholus]

3. Well, I have a few ideas...

1) Go to a good used bookstore. About 10 years ago there was a craze to write "learn XXX in 24 hours" which usually means they have a lot of small lessons that are easily digested.

2) I have a huge bias against the current incarnation of Apple, but the Apple II was the absolute easiest way to learn BASIC which was one of the easiest languages. YOu can find sites like http://www.virtualapple.org/ which run in your web browser. At that point you can learn by "edit" and "run" and the language is very simple and self-contained, yet not completely powerless.

3) Compilers cost money, which you don't want to spend until you reach a level where you need a certain feature and have to pay for it. To learn should stay cheap. Here is a site with a handful of free BASIC compilers and interpreters. I would prefer an interpreter because while it generates slower programs the difference is not that much and it is soooo much easier to maintain.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/basic.shtml
Warning. I haven't tested many of these....

There are many other ways, I'm just throwing some ideas out there to get you started!

BTW I am not a computer scientists but programming helped me at my job so I picked it up. I have had exactly two programming classes in my life, more than 20 years back. In Pascal of all things....