Does my first language really matter?

Garrick17

Hi, my name is Garrick. I am 17 and a junior in High School. For the past few months I have been interested in learning how to program, but have not been able to find the time. Now that summer is coming up, I am really wanting to get started.

I have spent more time reading than actually doing, and I have heard from several different sources your first language affects how you learn other new languages, and the way you view programming in general. I have read you should not learn Java as a first language.

So my question is, does this really matter? I am planning on making a career of programming if things go well and learning many langauges, so I figured it would be important to make sure I get started on the right foot so to speak. If this does matter, what is a language you would recommend?

Garrick17

Not sure I was specific enough, I am not sure what type of programmer I want to be at this point. So I guess I'm looking for one general enough to be applicable in many different areas

Lundin

Who says you shouldn't learn Java?! On the contrary, I would strongly recommend Java or C# as first language. Simply because these two languages have sane, structured syntax. They are both by far the best languages for object-orientation, which is the completely dominant way to write programs nowadays.

Another alternative is Object Pascal / Delphi. Pascal has always been known as the "student language". But it is also a dying language.

C is ok for beginners. It has a rather complicated, messy syntax and there are plenty of pitfalls, but on a hobbyist level it is rather straight-forward language.

C++ is like C, only much more complex. Like C, it has a messy syntax. It has object orientation support, but it isn't pretty. C++ is likely the most complex programming language of them all. I would suggest picking it as the second language to learn.

Stay far, far away from Visual Basic. It was written by lunatics, to be used by idiots. I have programmed plenty in VB5/VB6/VB.NET/VBA so I know what I'm talking about. The language stinks.

Garrick17

I read this off a programming introduction site. I have no idea how accurate it is. But I should search for C#?

""I used to recommend Java as a good language to learn early, but this critique has changed my mind (search for

AsmGuru62

[color=Blue]I recommend to begin with C. Good C programmer writes non-messy code. However, there aren't that many really good C coders now. That's why all C code considered messy.[/color]

Garrick17

How is UNIX as a first language?

anthrax11

[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix]UNIX[/link] is an operating system.

Garrick17

ah my bad i thought it was the language for linux based operating systems

ghostdog74

you can start with Python. Great language for a beginner with easy to read syntax. Forget about C/C++/Java/C#.