There are many specialized programming languages that do a great job.

I am learning C++ as a first language, so all I can do is share my thinking
about it.

C++ is a broad spectrum language capable of doing pretty much anything you
want, but is probably not as efficient as the specialty languages.

C++ is difficult and time consuming to learn. Expect to spend a few months
getting it down.

The learning path in C++ has many dead ends and wrong turns. It's very easy to
end up learning a variant of the language that is not compatible with anything
other than your own setup - there's a lot of non-ANSI compliant compilers out
there.

The final official version of C++ is very new and there are very few books on
fully compliant C++ on the market. I know of only 3.

C++ is highly modular and portable, probably more so than any other language.
It's very easy to reuse functions and objects.

C++ is supported with extensive and highly developed libraries. The number of
available custom libraries is stunning!

Online help is pretty spotty and unreliable - don't even think about it as a
general method of gaining knowledge.

You can always get paying work as a C++ programmer - the recruiters are
bombarding students enrolled in C++ courses.

If your programming goals are specialized, I'd probably recommend looking into
other languages.

steve




"Rune S. Johansen" wrote:

> I would like to come into programming.
>
> I can program with POV-Ray language which I use to make stills, animations,
> math programs that output data as pictures or text files, and other things.
> I would like to learn a real programming language so I will be less limited
> and can work with things such as interactivity.
> Now, I don't know any programming languages or what is required to make
> programs, so what I would like to know is which programming language I
> should choose to start with.
> A description of which languages have which advantages and disadvantages
> would be appreciated.
> There's one more thing, I can't spend any money on this programming hobby, I
> guess that limits my number of choices?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rune S. Johansen
> http://hjem.get2net.dk/rsj

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