language should I learn? I'm currently in law school and don't really have too much time but would like to start learning a programming language more to advance my knowledge of computers then to really create programs. Would be nice to be able to open a source or a plugin and understand how it works. Was thinking maybe C++? Its been a while since I learned anything like a programming language but I did assembler for microprocessors and visual basic in hs. What language would you recommend?

Yep, I think C and C++ are really good choice.

C++ is a pretty good choice if you already have some experience programming. You could also learn something like Java or Python.

any advice on a compiler? C++ for dummies says to use dev-C++ seems they use the beta not sure if I'm new to something that I should be using a beta program.

Dev-CPP is an Interactive Development Environment (IDE). It mostly uses the mingw/msys suite of compilers, or other flavors of g++ and the like. You can tell it to use any compiler if you know how to work it. Notepad++ allows this type of functionality, many text editors, especially with syntax coloring, allow running files in external apps. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info, here is another ide http://www.skyide.net/home.html called skyide, won a few awards looks like it has a lot, is it too much for someone just learning? I think using an IDE set to use a compiler rather then just using a commandline compiler should be easier.

I'd also recommend to have a look at an open source IDE Code::Blocks.

Thanks for the suggestion, going to try to use that with the book and see where I end up. Don't really have all that much time between law school and other obligations but something good to do in my spare time.

Join the crowd on the time thing. Not in law school, I'm student teaching at a middle school. Between that, my other classes, and my job this is the first time I've hit the forums in about a month I think.. Free time is a hard thing to come by sometimes.

Entirely off topic but what do you student teach? My other option, if I didn't go to law school, was to teach math. Probably would have continued to get a phd in order to teach in college. I do some math tutoring from time to time, people pay a ridiculous amount for math tutors on long island, sometimes over 100 bucks an hour .

Social Studies at the Secondary Level. Interning at a local middle school in 9th grade US History, only funny cause I tend to study South East Asia, not US History. My US History classes were closer to sociology/colloquium classes so I really know jack shit about US History besides the basics. I'm actually looking at law school after I graduate, but we'll see.

My roommate throughout college is in grad school to become a US history teacher. Law school isn't as bad as most people make it out to be just need to spend the time reading and be comfortable answering questions in class. The main annoyance is that grades are almost 100 percent based on finals so it is a real all or nothing proposition, also means you have absolutely no life for the two weeks or so that finals go on but two weeks or real hard work isn't too bad.

A nice combo is C/C++, JavaScript and Lua. Knowing those three languages will allow you to develop for most platforms and applications.

C/C++ is available for all platforms (including microprocessors for embedded use, have a look at AVR-GCC f.ex).
JavaScript is available in Windows (via Windows Scripting Host for powerful shell scripting purposes), OpenOffice, Firefox/Thunderbird (the UI is actually built around JS and XML, same with addons for the mozilla suite), Flash (actionscript is JavaScript/ECMAScript), etc.
Lua is used in several games (WoW, Crysis, Far Cry, Stalker, Painkiller) and also in Wireshark, MySQL, Snort, and others (and hopefully I will have bbLua up and running soon)

There are lots of other potent languages, but knowing those three will grant you enough power to do some interesting stuff.

Also, my vote goes to code::blocks