We've had this question asked before I believe but it does no harm in asking it again and again. After all, opinions change as does the software ecosystem. Quincy Larson of FreeCodeCamp.com asked this question via Medium: What programming language should you learn first? He thinks JavaScript is the way to go and his arguments are cogent and well thought out. However, I am somewhat hesitant to suggest someone learn to code in JavaScript first. My first programming language (in 1981!) was Fortran on a Control Data mainframe. The interactive environment the OS provided was pretty simple and the language provided few opportunities to hang yourself. JavaScript, by comparison, while it may not have those evil pointers of C/C++, it offers functional features and plenty of rope to hang oneself.
So, opinions please.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday November 04 2016, @10:58PM
This might only make ½ a sense, but when I started programming I didn't use any file io either. I had a decent C book but only a non-standard C compiler (Microsoft's I think since it was the dos\win3.11 era). So, failing to include the headers, I ended up sticking to the previous chapter's main (int argc, char *argv[]) stdin + batch scripting approach throughout the book's assignments.
Another victim of early 90s internet deprivation syndrome.
On topic, I suggest LISP as a first language. Once you pick up a C family language you can never get used to all the parenthesis so it's better to learn LISP as soon as possible.
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