If you've never done any coding before in your life, DarkBASIC Pro is a really good place to start (was for me). Its the easiest language around to learn for DirectX kind of stuff and you'll pick up all the concepts of programming along the way.
All I can say really is it made my life helluva lot easier learning C++ by learning DarkBASIC Pro first, then moving on to C++ rather than jumping right into C++, which I tried to do the first time and got frustrated with its difficulty and steep learning curve for a newbie. Of course, C++ seems so much easier now.
I guess if you want the smoothest ride possible into the C++ world, the best thing would be to get DB Pro first, work with that for a while and make a few basic things, then move onto DarkGDK, which uses the same command names as DBP, but in a C++ environment. Thats basically the easiest and less stressful route into C++.
DBP and DGDK can both be downloaded for non-commercial use as far as I know if you want to give them both a try before actually buying them.
