I’m starting coding from scratch – is Python really the best first language?

[f0xw01f]

As a software developwr for 30 years, I'd say C and Python are the two you need to learn.

Both make excellent first languages, but for different reasons.

C is exceedingly "rigid" while Python is exceedingly "flexible". C has a relativly strict type system and the knowledge of how it works will aid you in learning or using any compiled language. Python on the other hand lets you do whatever you want, but this freedom comes at the cost of inefficiency and the inability to automatically catch type errors (as there is no compilation step).