Thread: Which language to start with

I didn't read through this whole thread, so I'm not sure if someone has said this, but isn't starting with C to move onto C++ not really a good thing because you will end up learning "C-Style" C++ with the casting, scoping, etc. Although, if you read the book by Bruce Eckel, "C, Foundations for C++ and Java", you might be okay.

Originally Posted by Mario F.

... So you can agree the size of the code is not a good measure of how easy the programming language is to learn...

Sometimes if you write less code, that means you did fewer things, that means you had to know fewer things, that means you learned it quicker, that simply means it was easier! So yes, sometimes lesser code shows that the particular language is easy!

Ultimately no language is easier to learn than some other language. This is probably most true for at least the mainstream languages; after all there's the fact they are indeed mainstream. You can hear a crowd of Java programmers swearing over how easy that programming language is, the same from Ruby, C, etc...

Easier in the sense?
If we think about being easier means fewer things to know, fewer to worry etc. then yeah there are some languages which are easier than other.

Every language presents the newcomer with its own set of challenges and simplifications.

That happens because the new comer is, well, a new comer, I know people who find it really hard to understand HTML!

What is more important instead is that learning a programming language is a personal process that is dependent on many factors, some of them external and out of one's control. At the lowest level our own motivation, background, age and computer literacy can determine how easy a language is to learn. But invariably the method and quality of the teaching will have the strongest impact. Two different people can have completely opposite feelings about how easy C++ is to learn and possibly they are both right.

You know, as I get more experience in this field, I feel that programing language choice is the least of a concern, even for a programmer/developer!

So to conclude... I dare you to prove some language is easier to learn than the next one

That will fall flat! Since I am on a C++ board!

But arranged by the easiness, most to least:
Python, Java, C++

Sometimes if you write less code, that means you did fewer things, that means you had to know fewer things, that means you learned it quicker, that simply means it was easier! So yes, sometimes lesser code shows that the particular language is easy!

You can do a lot of functional programming just by outlining cases, but I wouldn't call that simple work.

But arranged by the easiness, most to least:
Python, Java, C++

Let me repeat that I only suggested he stay with what he's learning because I'm not sure how much is "the beginnings of python" or how much Java he really knows. I'd rather him build good things in languages he knows rather than ask him to relearn the C++ way, right now, because that's where he's posting at. It had nothing do with the easy way versus the hard way, whatever that is supposed to mean.

I agree with "The Perfect Gentleman"

python is ok but a little mis formatting of code and the whole program becomes unreadable and may not work at all since white space is so important in python i wish they had it like:

Code:

if True:
:

i.e. two colons for start and end ruby has end keyword but : would look better and in java you have to type a lot although thanks to NetBeans that it is easier now as compared to when i had notepad.exe and win98 command prompt.