If you're doing really advanced computational physics, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't start on an easier path and learn about those challenges later. It

If you're doing really advanced computational physics, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't start on an easier path and learn about those challenges later. It's no different to practical work – you start off by focusing on the concepts, not worrying about budgeting and time constraints, even though those things are important in the real world too. In our undergrad course we used C and it was completely the wrong tool for the job. No one learned more about numerical challenges than they could've with Python, and fighting with semicolons just puts people off.