Title says it all. My friend recommended I start with C. Just wanted to double check.
Title says it all. My friend recommended I start with C. Just wanted to double check.
The most important thing you can do is to learn how to program. This cannot be stressed enough. The language you are using is irrelevant, and you will touch many languages during the course of your study and career.
In my own opinion, yes. Either 'C' or assembly, but I personally find 'C' more fun.
No, C is not a good language to start with. I recommend python. As a computer engineer, you should learn C too though.
Just to add to the confusion, I'm going to suggest that it's as good as any...
As Andrew already pointed out it is very unlikely you'll get into a programming career without having to work with several different languages over the years.
C is a nasty language with very few built in safeguards, you can do things horrific and wonderful with it... but mostly it will teach you to be careful with your code; good habits you can carry to other languages as you go.
High level languages like C# and Python do a lot of baby sitting, they allow you to be somewhat wreckless and do a lot of cleaning up after you. While they do give you a good basis in programming, they don't tend to generate careful programmers or programmers who really understand what happens when code goes wrong.... they baby sit and protect you from seeing that... C doesn't.
A secondary decision hinges upon what you're likely to encounter in specific fields of interest... Embedded devices (Microcontrollers) use C a lot... larger corporations tend to favor RAD tools like C#, where dedicated programming houses tend to favor C++. So think about where you want to work before you get too deep into a given trench.
You've chosen to major in CSE and you're asking what your first programming language should be. Are you trolling us? :rolleyes:
(And wasn't LISP mandatory for everyone majoring in CS? :biggrin:)
Trolling you? I don't see why this is a strange question. I know i will be learning Java in my first few classes at OSU but during the summer i figured i'd try to learn C
I suppose the question we should put forth to you is: do you enjoy programming? I've always gotten a strange excitement when I had a reason to code something, which is why I personally enjoyed the challenges of 'C' (mentioned previously in this thread).
C is fantastic to learn first because it is a pretty small language. There isn't a lot of extra functionality. You can learn how to program because you are given all the necessities and nothing more.