Hmmm. How did I start out? ...

I think the first language I ever looked into was DarkBasic. Although I have no reason to believe that you couldn''t learn from this language, I certainly didn''t.

Then I looked into the RPG Toolkit, which had its own language built in. (The author, Christopher B. Matthews, insists on not calling it a scripting language.) I learned something from this, but still not much. (Now I can''t even remember the name of that language... phooey.)

Then I went and learned C++. I went from still knowing essentially nothing about programming to C++. This is the first language that I actually learned. Quite a monster.

Now, it was after I had gotten very familiar with C++ that I went out and bought my first copy of a Linux distro. This is probably one of the most important steps that I''ve taken. I was using Windows ME at the time, so you can just imagine the frustration that was causing me.

Linux (Unix, really) offered a new way of thinking to me. It just offered more power to me. There is nothing forcing you into any particular policy. Instead, it''s all about mechanism. You''re at the helm. I liked that.

Well, I used C++ for a long time, and eventually just got sick of it. I then discovered a book (which I''ve mentioned innumerable times before) called The Art of Unix Programming. This book is not about any given language, nor any particular environment. It''s about philosophy. Plain. Simple. And art.

The lessons in that book led me to the language I use most often today: C.


So I started with C++, and wound up with C. Because it was purely a matter of philosophy, this was certainly not a downgrade. For me, it was an upgrade.



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Benjamin Heath
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I don''t know how old you are, but if you''re in high school then take computer science one and two classes. You''ll learn vb and then advance to c++. or just go directly to c++.

I''ve looked at all the languages, they''re all nice to use depending on your style, but c++ is the always-going-to-be-there language.. at least in our lifetimes.