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Learn how to code?

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krait:
My recommendation is to pick a language and environment that are modern and easy to learn and debug, rather than choosing something simply based on popularity. C++, for example, would probably not be anywhere on that list (you can write medium sized programs in other languages in the same amount of time that even common mistakes can take to debug in C++). Even if you have a target mainstream language you want to approach, if it's not one of the semantically simpler languages (remember, simplicity doesn't mean less powerful -- sometimes quite the opposite!), then it can be faster to learn general programming concepts first before attempting to transfer those concepts onto learning a harder language.

HamsterIV:
This debate is an old one, but I learned C as my first language and moved on to easier languages. My C background made it easier to understand the complexities of pointers, pass by reference, and data structures, when learning a new language. Getting started it is much easier to learn Java or Python than C, but the easy way is not always the best way.

krait:

--- Quote from: HamsterIV on March 22, 2013, 01:19:33 pm ---Getting started it is much easier to learn Java or Python than C, but the easy way is not always the best way.

--- End quote ---

I know a great many people who use pointers when they don't need them -- and for the wrong reasons, often their intuitions (or what they've been told) about performance are exactly opposite in those cases to how the hardware is working. It's rather easy to only half-learn use of pointers, and that's pretty dangerous. Lacking pointers, a language with extremely clear reference-vs-nonref semantics means that there wont be a lot of the confusion involved if and when a programmer starts learning a pointer-based language.

FightBoyVash:
Java was my first language, stuck with is ever since and eventually started learning Lua.

Lord Dick Tim:
http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/29/10-places-where-anyone-can-learn-to-code/

Found this super nifty Ted talks blog post.  Lots of, I hope, good links here.

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