Could you please give me some starting tips and maybe some advice that would help me learn how to program software?

Probably the most difficult part with getting started in programming is choosing a language. In your case, I would go for an object-oriented language. In that type of language just about everything is an object module, which you then manipulate via the code you write. For example, in your program you may have a STRING object. A string is essentially a collection of letters (characters) e.g., ‘hello’. In your program, you can manipulate this string to contain whatever word(s) you like. The two fundamental concepts of object oriented programming are that of objects and classes. Objects are computer representations of real-world objects which are of interest to the program you are writing (for example, a string containing your name). Classes are a collection of like objects - for example, you may have a class named PERSON with the objects NAME, ADDRESS, and AGE. However, we are now starting to get into more complex concepts. So, the first thing you should do is pick a language. There are some products available which allow you to build software (e.g., games) without actually having to write any code. For example, by doing a quick search on the internet, I found a program called Game Maker (www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/) which is a free software package for making games. It also appears to have a built in programming language if you would like to do some coding. I have not used this software, so I cannot vouch for it but you may wish to check it out.

Alternatively, if you would like to dive in the deep end and try pure coding, there are several different languages available with varying coding syntax (and varying price). Some of these include Visual Basic, Delphi, and SmallEiffel. These do, however, contain some differences. For example, SmallEiffel is purely code-based as opposed to Visual Basic and Delphi which have a nice graphical interface with which to make Windows-based applications. On the other hand, SmallEiffel is free whereas Visual Basic and Delphi are not. If you would like to get into programming, I suggest that you find an inexpensive language by shopping around the computer stores (you may even be able to buy a software package at an educational discount if you are a student - depending on the company’s licence rules). Then you should also probably buy a beginners book on programming in that specific language (make sure that the book you buy is relevant to the version of the programming software that you have!). Also, if you do buy programming software at an educational discount, read the licence before buying as, if you wanted to sell the software you make, you may not be able to under the software licence.