CompuServe Messages

>What language would you suggest a New Programmer start to learn? The choices >are really almost endless. Frankly, I think the choices are endless. I'm much more concerned about a new programmer learning/knowing how to think, weight, consider, research, sweat, etc, than what size paintbrush or hammer they have. Too much common wisdom recommends Pascal as "the teaching language", and although I understand why this is said, I think it is somewhat a misguide. Although Pascal is a small enough and safe enough language, as per above, the real issue at hand is in designing and thinking properly. There are also real world issues like where the market is, what the persons interests and goals might be, etc. It is also more important to me that folks turn to the better training material and mechanisms. >IMHO, the language of choice for the Amiga platform is "C". No doubt. >I understand what you give up by using "C", I.E., speed, size of executable >file, learning the "quirks" of each different compiler, to name a few. No sure what you mean re giving these things up. Sure, certain feature or library routines have associated costs, but don't they all in most HLLs? What C-based language give you re these things is that in C, you don't pay for what you don't use, you can get low level when you want, etc, hence, there is no great speed or size disadvantage to using C. And in fact, since C is so popular, compilers (albeit with quirks, just like for any language) are reasonable about avoiding silly code bloat and such things. >But the advantages of "C" are not bad at all, I.E., large base of code, >libraries, portable, and the most important to me, the large amount of people >to gain insights/pitfalls, maybe? Don't get me wrong, I'm very much into C and C++. I have no problem recommending C as a first language. As with everything, be wise.