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asr comments on PSA: Learn to code - Less Wrong
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Comments (77)
I don't agree with the language advice. Different languages teach different things.
C is a good language for learning how the machine works, what memory looks like at a low level, and so forth. It's lousy for getting most practical work done in.
Python is a nice language for munging text and other data. It's pretty good these days for numerical work, graph generation, and so forth (thanks to numpy and matplotlib.)
JavaScript is good if you want to use a web browser to interact with your programs, and if you're prepared to also learn HTML alongside learning to program.
My sense is that Java/C#/ObjectiveC/C++ are too complex to be really good "first languages". Useful professionally, useful for many kinds of programming, but not great for learning.
There are a lot of good intro-programming resources for Java, C, and Python. My impression is that Java and Python are the most popular "first languages" academically. I don't believe Ada has nearly as much traction in that niche, which means there will be less support..
I think probably Python is the best bet, all-in-all.