I had a similar experience. Tried to doodle with various languages. A mutation of Basic on an Apple III, AppleScript, HyperTalk, THINK Pascal, even tried to crunch through Symantec's C Compiler book (ha!).
Nothing made sense until someone gave me [this book](http://www.valorebooks.com/textbooks/learn-c-on-the-macintosh/9780201484069#default=buyhttp://www.valorebooks.com/affiliate/url/siteID=x0f6M7?url=http://www.valorebooks.com/textbooks/learn-c-on-the-macintosh/9780201484069%23default=buy&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Froogle&utm_source=Froogle&date=06/27/13) and I sat down to learn th…