re: Free Coding Software Suggestions?

Visual Basic is dead, I wouldn't waste any time learning it. You said you wanted something 'user friendly' at first, which I'm assuming you meant beginner-friendly. I don't really know anything about R, but you don't see a lot of people recommending R to beginners and its capabilities are pretty limited. I'll recommend it one more time. Python. it is beginner-friendly, robust, can be used for data analysis, machine learning, web development, embedded applications, it's widely supported, arguably the fastest growing language in popularity, wide availabilities of libraries to help you do what you want, the list goes on.