I also got stuck on C++. It was (and remains) such a disproportionate pain to compile, which was just too high a hurdle in the days before you could search for

I also got stuck on C++. It was (and remains) such a disproportionate pain to compile, which was just too high a hurdle in the days before you could search for your cryptic build errors on the internet. I was able to fool around with BASIC easily enough, with entire programs provided in magazines like Byte.