C++ or Other Language

[FatherSioux]

I'm returning to school to obtain my CS Degree. I know there are schools of thought that self teaching the CS material has real value. I'm not debating that but it's not the route I'm going to take.

My real question is in regards to which language to try and dive into first. The two schools of thought on this that I've observed are to dive headfirst into C++ because of how well equipped you will be for languages in the future. On the other hand some out there say to learn Python/Java because of the lower barrier to entry and more digestible language.

Asking anyone familiar with the topic to share some insights into what they did, what they wished they did and what they would do if they could do it all over again.

[Irulan]

just learn plane C or python or java, you'll need all 3 eventually. And C# and C++ are .net kinda languages still right? IDK it's been a decade. Start with easy stuff. OOP is messy and important for big weird projects, but probably becoming out dated? I don't know.

Java is probably the most absolute easiest lol.

If you can read C you can probably read everything on a unix box. Even bash or csh or ksh scripts.

[Torven]

I really can't wait for C++ to die. It's awful.

My admittedly unprofessional opinion would be to learn C first if you were intent on learning C++. Only use C++ if you have to. It's full of needless complication and dangerous features. OOP is overrated. Programmers have some strange complexity fetish that prevents them from not using it, which is unfortunate.

Python will be more enjoyable to code in. Python however has different use cases. C/C++ should be used when highly efficient code is necessary. (e.g. systems code) Python should be used when code doesn't need to be blazing fast. Value dev time over code speed because 95% of the time the former matters more.

Personally I prefer Lua and Golang. But again, these have different use cases. One language isn't the best at everything. Figure out what type of applications you want to code first, then select the best tools to build them.