> C is the beginning of everything, everything is built on top of it. I would argue that basic comp-sci principles and common language meta-syntax (mainly thos

> C is the beginning of everything, everything is built on top of it. I would argue that basic comp-sci principles and common language meta-syntax (mainly those derived from the fortran/pascal/c branch of things) is where everything (skills) should be built from. I'm not expressing this clearly; I know that. What I am trying to get across is that if you understand the fundamental principles (not necessarily the deep-dark parts of comp-sci where wizards roam) - you can apply those to almost any language (save for a handful or so - there are some languages out there that look very esoteric; LISP for one, but there are others on the functional language branch and other areas where the mindset for developing in them is quite different. That said, most of these "other" languages tend to be academic in usage (not that they aren't interesting in their own right!); that is, you won't generally find them much in the "real world" business area - not usually. However, sometimes you'll run across an employer or two willing to pay big bucks for that one expert developer to help them with their project in some language that isn't widely used. They are paying the money because the supply-demand curve is very skewed, but I would hesitate at taking such a position - while the money may be good, you could pigeon-hole yourself if you aren't careful.