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ya they confuse me, espessially c and c++. I personally like python, it is very high level and fairly easy to use. Unlike c, you do not have to do everything(memory allocation and whatnot). It seems like a good starter language. It is very flexible, you can even do nice gui stuff. I think I have read that a python program uses about 1/4 of the code of a similar c program. I like fast results.

I find it best to figure out a small task you want done, and try and write it. Projects seem like the best way to learn.

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It is becoming or already is a very popular, main stream language. I am sure you have heard of the program bittorrent, that was written in python. I know google, yahoo, nasa just to name a few, all use python.

Edited by shanenin
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There are always the top-down and the bottom-up approaches to teaching programming.

C or C++ really should be taught from a bottom-up approach, meaning you need to know just a little about computer architecture to fully grasp what's going on. If you're just trying to understand C without any prior knowledge regarding "how computers work" (no, "pushing 1s and 0s" isn't enough prior knowledge), I think you'll eventually get badly hung up on pointer arithmetic or type casting (or a combination of) somewhere down the line. I mean, no offense to anyone, but you'll find that writing "Hello world" programs in C is pretty worthless experience when you end up wanting to write something useful. Some people like to suggest you know a bit of assembly to supliment C knowledge (C is the "portable assembly" anyway, right?). I'd tend to disagree, though I wouldn't deny that knowing the basics of compiler theory are VERY helpful.

Python, on the other hand, lends itself nicely to the top-down approach. In this realm you really don't need to have much prior knowledge about a computer except how to operate it at a high level. This is the approach that more people tend to take. It's less time consuming, less involved, less detailed, and plays well to short attention spans that don't want to spend countless hours learning pointer arithmetic and still not be able to do anything that is quite obviously useful.

My suggestion: unless you want to get yourself in deeper than you may have bargained for, go with the top-down approach. Python is a good beginner's language, and it just so happens to be fairly useful to boot. Another language you might be interested in learning is Scheme, since it will introduce you to a programming paradigm that is far too often neglected these days.

-uberpenguin

Edited by uberpenguin
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Scheme.... Well, I would enjoy it.

(Completely off-topic, but I just read the C# 3.0 spec and looked at the LINQ tech preview released at PDC 2005. Frightening stuff. Microsoft has made about 30 years of progress in the last three years. The platform is still maybe a decade behind the state of the art, but if they combine the LINQ features with F# or another modern (read: quasi-functional) language they could have a real killer app on their hands.)

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Scheme.... Well, I would enjoy it.

Well, I think it's useful to have an introduction to functional languages, and Scheme is about the most simple and clean (read: minimalistic) functional language I know of. I think I'd make an eternal enemy if I suggested he learned Common Lisp.

-uberpenguin

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Well, I think it's useful to have an introduction to functional languages, and Scheme is about the most simple and clean (read: minimalistic) functional language I know of.

Unlambda?

I think I'd make an eternal enemy if I suggested he learned Common Lisp.

He's on a fast ship to Greenspunland with Python anyway, he may as well go back to the source.

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Uh uh... Sorry, but BF is my `frightens the little children' programming language of choice.

He's on a fast ship to Greenspunland with Python anyway, he may as well go back to the source.

"Kicking and screaming" is all I have to say...

(I bet the poor OP isn't feeling too secure about all this right now).

-uberpenguin

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