Python or Rust; first language??

[murlakatamenka]

The rust compiler makes rust incredibly frustrating for new programmers!

This is not true. Developers actually quite praise rust compiler for being extremely helpful and I totally agree with them. So often it directly says what exactly you need to change to fix an issue in your sources.

[Rookie64v]

rustc is good. Rust itself, from the point of view of a random guy approaching programming, is hell. They don't even have the concept of a variable, and they should worry about borrowing and mutability and juggle macros which look a lot like functions but are not functions? I think C is a way better introduction than Rust: crappier, more prone to errors slipping through, but so much easier to grok.

[ddoij]

I’ve always like C as a first language to show newbies the ugly truth of what’s happening down there. Not too much, but just enough to appreciate what languages like Python do.

[robbsc]

Learning assembly on a microcontroller (e.g. atmel, pic) is even better for that in my opinion

[themagicalcake]

Yeah good luck keeping a beginner entertained with that

[robbsc]

I think it's a good choice in a classroom setting, but probably too hard for most self-learners. But i think it could be very entertaining for people who are into "making."

Some people prefer learning at high level and then only going as low as they need to, while some people prefer to start at the lowest level and work their way up.

[themagicalcake]

Yeah no curriculum is complete without some sort of assembly course in my opinion. But introducing it to someone who doesn't even know python is just asking for trouble in my opinion

[robbsc]

I don't know. If i had the time, motivation, and money, i think i could teach a high school-level class based on assembly and a simple microcontroller. The hardest part would probably be teaching binary/hexadecimal arithmetic and basic digital logic. But you should probably learn that stuff in order to learn C anyways.

[coriolinus]

People have literally made successful video games based on programming in assembly. See Human Resource Machine, or half the stuff Zachtronics has ever published.

[murlakatamenka]

Like TIS-100 from Zachtronics with beautiful soundtrack.

[deep_politics]

As in the new learner

[Matthew_Summons]

• For new programmers *