I'll start with C and C++. The two go well together because C++ is more or less an enhancement of C. All coding in C can be easily transferred to C++.

First, I must tell you what programming means. A program is a set of instructions that tells the computer hardware you are using what to do. Anything from 2+2 to laying out a neat animated face that moving around a virtual world (nah... that could never happen! *wink*).

Well, what's a program used for? In the real world, it can be anything from a small program to a really large application. The ipod user interface is written in C++, in fact.

Sun's Java is written to be very similar to C++... does that ring a bell? An icon for Java sometimes appears in your window as a Whyville chatroom loads up. Java is one of the primary languages used in Whyville.

C and C++ use what is known in the technical world as "Object-Oriented Programming". I suspect most of you don't know what that is, but don't worry, I sure didn't at first, either.

It basically organizes self-contained pieces of data so they are easy to re-use. Only a short piece of coding is needed to run complex actions. This means that the code is short and easy to use.

If you are thinking of writing in C++, you will need a compiler, which I presume you can get on disk. This will help convert your source code to an executable program. If you want to explore this stuff further, check out the tutorials on the sites given below.

That's all I have to say, except: Start programming!

Cobd

p.s. Before I go, I just want to say that I do not know either of these programming languages.

Sources:
http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html
http://www.cplusplus.com/info/description.html