4 ms·

A little, but I cringed more at this: "New programmers typically learn how to use them before any other programming languages..."

freehunter 15y ago
All anecdotes aside (I started in HTML and VB, gotta say the VB was more useful to me as someone who didn't go on to be a professional programmer), maybe there's some poll they took to see where people started. Maybe there needs to be. I could see a case where people typically start with a easy-to-grok language like HTML. For one, it's quick to see progress in HTML proficiency.
zanny 15y ago
I'm just graduating with my BS, and I just know general tag usage in html like <img> <video> etc and absolutely no CSS, because I have never made a website or tried to. My only attempts at javascript were demoing webgl and then I wanted to throw my screen at the wall. So something like this is nice - I should know how to make web sites, if only to say I know how. Its a good skill.
- Davertron 15y ago
  I completely agree. If I were getting started now, I would probably start learning JavaScript as my first programming language. Along with that I would want to learn HTML and CSS, but to say that most new programmers get started using HTML and CSS as their first languages seems a stretch to me.
mattray0295 15y ago
Well someone should let codeacademy know that HTML/CSS aren't programming languages!
- sirclueless 15y ago
  That's absurd. They are a set of rules that dictate how a browser lays out media. That's a programming language to everyone but a computer science purist. The question of whether I can use these layout rules to find the 2,000th digit of pi is totally irrelevant.
  - puppybeard 15y ago
    I regard them as instructions to be processed by something which can actually evaluate those instructions, like a browser. Writing css and html is no more programming than writing a word doc is. The resulting file has information and layout but it's totally static. I wouldn't call them a language, and they're the main part of my job.

freehunter 15y ago

All anecdotes aside (I started in HTML and VB, gotta say the VB was more useful to me as someone who didn't go on to be a professional programmer), maybe there's some poll they took to see where people started. Maybe there needs to be. I could see a case where people typically start with a easy-to-grok language like HTML. For one, it's quick to see progress in HTML proficiency.

zanny 15y ago

I'm just graduating with my BS, and I just know general tag usage in html like <img> <video> etc and absolutely no CSS, because I have never made a website or tried to. My only attempts at javascript were demoing webgl and then I wanted to throw my screen at the wall. So something like this is nice - I should know how to make web sites, if only to say I know how. Its a good skill.

Davertron 15y ago
I completely agree. If I were getting started now, I would probably start learning JavaScript as my first programming language. Along with that I would want to learn HTML and CSS, but to say that most new programmers get started using HTML and CSS as their first languages seems a stretch to me.

mattray0295 15y ago

Well someone should let codeacademy know that HTML/CSS aren't programming languages!

sirclueless 15y ago
That's absurd. They are a set of rules that dictate how a browser lays out media. That's a programming language to everyone but a computer science purist. The question of whether I can use these layout rules to find the 2,000th digit of pi is totally irrelevant.
- puppybeard 15y ago
  I regard them as instructions to be processed by something which can actually evaluate those instructions, like a browser. Writing css and html is no more programming than writing a word doc is. The resulting file has information and layout but it's totally static. I wouldn't call them a language, and they're the main part of my job.