I mention c and not c++ because some of those nice features of c++ have
gotten me into trouble.  It was easier to them do it in plain old c.  I
think with c you get a better grasp on what is actually happening.  But
that is just me.

Johannes Hubert wrote:
> 
> portelli wrote in message <37224A1B.9E54CA8A@pilot.msu.edu>...
> >Start with c.  There are several free compilers out there.  For the PC
> >there is djgpp, cygwin, and several others.
> 
> I wouldn't recommend that actually. C is a difficult language to learn as a
> first language. If you really don't want to do anything object-oriented,
> then I would recommend Pascal instead.
> 
> But then again, why *not* an object-oriented langauge?
> 
> It is only a myth that object-oriented languages are more difficult to learn
> than procedural ones (like C or Pascal). This mostly stems from the fact,
> that most programmers began with BASIC, C or Pascal but very few with an
> object-oriented language, and that for those oldtimers "object-orientation"
> still is some strange "newfangled" concept because it goes partly contrary
> to what they have learned before. For a newbie who never had contact with
> programming before, the whole object-orientation can be very intuitive and
> easy to grasp, because there are no preconceptions about "how something
> should be done" (in terms of programming) that are to be overcome.
> 
> In the recent "C/C++ Users Journal" from May 99 Bjarne Stroustrup makes a
> very convincing argument about giving C++ the first choice over C as the
> first language of a beginner (well, he is the inventor of C++, so who would
> have guessed his opinion in that matter? ;-) .
> 
> C++ also has the advantage, that it is a superset of C. That means, once you
> have mastered C++, you also have mastered C! (But you don't have to use all
> the ugly nitty-gritty things from C, because often C++ offers a more elegant
> solution.)
> 
> I can also very much recommend Java as a very tidy and strongly structured
> (and easy to learn) language. Most probably easier to learn than C++!
> It may be a little more difficult to come into (learning about classes, and
> virtual machines and classpaths etc.) than C++, but still: A good choice.
> 
> If you ever plan to draw advantage out of your programming skills when it
> comes to getting a job, then you should definitely learn either C++, C (with
> the reservations mentioned above), Java or maybe Visual Basic (which is
> probably out of the question since you don't want to buy something).
> 
> So long,
> Johannes.

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