Help Please

I am looking to get into computer sciences when I go off to college, and I would kinda like to get a little bit of a head start. What would be a good (free) computer programming software to get started on? I already program all the time on my TI-84 and am fairly fluent in BASIC. Any help would be wonderful.

I'm a freshman doing a Computer Science and Business major. This year I've been learning Java in my CSE classes. The engineers had to learn C++. I'd say go with Java first, since it basically has everything C++ has, and more.

Well that is dandy and all, but where could I get that, how could I begin? Could it be downloaded someone for free, or will this put a huge dent in my wallet?

I'd say the opposite of Drumz0rz - start with C++ as it has everything java has and more. Java doesn't do anything with memory or pointers - C++ has every language semantic possible. It's the perfect language to learn with. You can find stuff all over the internet for it if you're interested - for free.

Already started java

I downloaded the official Java package and I'm learning online. I did the "Hello World!" Program. Thanks a lot for your help. If you have anymore advice I would appreciate it.

my advice is learn c++ over java ... i could give you 100 reasons, but my main one is that it makes lazy programmers lazier.

I did just download both Microsoft Visual C++ and Microsoft Visual Basic. I figured if I ever get frustrated, I could play around with Visual Basic and have a good old time.

Because of your overwhelming advice to indeed learn C++ over Java, I will now be learned C++ over Java. It looks a little nicer too.

I'm not very pleased with Visual C++ by Microsoft. What is the best compiler to use for C++?

Visual C++ is not compiler, it is IDE.
If you don't like visual studio and Microsoft compilers you might try your luck with Linux and gcc.