If they're really the only two options, I'd use C++: code that cannot be actually compiled and executed isn't code at all. You can write pseudo-code all day, a

If they're really the only two options, I'd use C++: code that cannot be actually compiled and executed isn't code at all. You can write pseudo-code all day, and learn very little. It's fundamental that programmers grasp that the machine has no common sense, is absolutely literal, and that instructing one to get it to do what you want is unlike anything you've done before.