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I was introduced to C and then C++ when I was 10 years old. I found the book on C by Arthur Chapman very confusing, particularly pointers. I then started readin

I was introduced to C and then C++ when I was 10 years old. I found the book on C by Arthur Chapman very confusing, particularly pointers. I then started reading a book on Pascal in the same series and that was confusing too. But I stuck with it and have found that learning C++ has meant that I think in C++, and transfer this to other languages when I have to write them. Additionally, the second thing I found was that all other languages I have come across (Obj-C, Java, Swift, JavaScript, PHP, C#) all have enough commonalities in syntax and thought processes that working in them is easy. In some cases, you get to consider them "dumbed-down" C++, and it makes working in them easier (and means approaches to things are different). So it isn't a bad language after all. Particularly with the changes in C++11, it feels like an entirely new language.

cm2187 11y ago
I went the other way. I was introduced to programming at university, although not in a computer science degree. The professor believed in the hard way, so using some old Unix machines (it was in the 2000s), writing C++ in the equivalent of a notepad, and "debugging by printf". Though I was keen on getting into coding, I was like many other students put off by this approach and only went back to programming many years later with visual basic. I appreciate that one gets a better understanding of computer science by going really low level (assembler, etc) but I question whether this is the right approach if one wants coding to be more mainstream. I think coding should be taught in high school like latin or physics, not because kids will all become programmers, or historians or scientists, but because having a basic understanding and culture will help in everyone's life and it gives kids a taste for what a career in that field may look like. And I don't think C++ is the right tool for that.

cm2187 11y ago

I went the other way. I was introduced to programming at university, although not in a computer science degree. The professor believed in the hard way, so using some old Unix machines (it was in the 2000s), writing C++ in the equivalent of a notepad, and "debugging by printf". Though I was keen on getting into coding, I was like many other students put off by this approach and only went back to programming many years later with visual basic. I appreciate that one gets a better understanding of computer science by going really low level (assembler, etc) but I question whether this is the right approach if one wants coding to be more mainstream. I think coding should be taught in high school like latin or physics, not because kids will all become programmers, or historians or scientists, but because having a basic understanding and culture will help in everyone's life and it gives kids a taste for what a career in that field may look like. And I don't think C++ is the right tool for that.