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Choosing a First Programming Language, in One Graph

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday January 24 2015, @01:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the bicycle-chains dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Blogger Carl Cheo, who maintains a website providing numbered lists of tips for maximizing online productivity, has pulled together an easy-to-follow graphic answering the newbie question "What programming language should I learn first?" (pdf here). Cheo chose nine commercially viable languages as possible destinations as the viewer navigates the flow chart. Further down the page, there are tabs with annotated links to educational resources for each language. So what's in it for Soylentils, most of whom I'm guessing were programming newbies in the previous millenium? Well, maybe you have nephews or nieces who chose the wrong major in college. Besides, the graphic is amusing and clever, though probably not the last word on the subject.

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Saturday January 24 2015, @02:53AM

    by Buck Feta (958) on Saturday January 24 2015, @02:53AM (#137524) Journal

    No one bothers with assembly languages anymore?

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    - fractious political commentary goes here -

  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday January 24 2015, @03:42AM

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday January 24 2015, @03:42AM (#137531) Journal
    No, the original high-level language is far too low-level for todays hipsters.

    Which makes sense, did you look at how often $$$ shows up in his flow chart? It's all about the money. Which means churning out crap quickly and keeping your customers on an upgrade treadmill, it makes no sense to try and do anything properly in that environment.

    The first 3 languages I learned were TRS-80 Basic, Sinclair Basic, and Z80 machine language. I'm living proof that Basic causes brain damage, but if I were recommending a language for someone that actually wants to get into programming (as opposed to just wanting $$$) it would definitely be machine language. There's something almost magical about learning your computers native language instead of having to put everything through several layers of machine translation back and forth.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?

    • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday January 24 2015, @04:02AM

      by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday January 24 2015, @04:02AM (#137536)

      Yep, for me it was TRS-80 BASIC -> Z-80 assembly -> 8080 assembly -> 8086 assembly -> C -> 2900 microcode -> awk -> sed -> sh -> C++ -> perl -> etc

      --
      Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 24 2015, @11:43AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 24 2015, @11:43AM (#137602) Journal

    As first language? I guess for 99% of all people it would be a means to eliminate all interest into programming.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 24 2015, @07:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 24 2015, @07:52PM (#137670)

    Which platform? Choose wisely...