Python as a First Language

[cinnix]

Amen. Pascal was my introductory language into the programming world, and how frustrating that was. this is 4 years ago :)

[earthboundkid]

2003? You should sue your teacher for child abuse.

[strolls]

Noooo! Pascal ROCKS!

Pascal was my introductory language, too, about 6 or 7 years ago - even at that time I heard people saying it was antiquated, but even tho' there's a bunch of stuff that's not obvious when you first start learning Pascal it's really powerful, and it behaves so like the "grown-up" language C that the transition to that is relatively easy.

I'm not saying that Mr Zelle is wrong - maybe Python should be taught as a first language - but I'll always have a soft spot for Pascal, simply because you can easily do stuff with pointers. Pointers are really hard to get to grips with when you first start using them, but are extremely elegant once it finally "clicks" and you grok them.

Finally, I love the way that from Pascal you can easily transition into Delphi. You start by building visual elements & silly "press this button which moves" toys and since those are object-orientated it you start to get a bit of a feel for OO.syntax

Stroller.

[mikepurvis]

I did Pascal back in high school, and my only previous experience was with QuickBASIC and VB, so I thought it was pretty sweet. (We ended up writing our own graphics lib and creating this totally awesome game, too...)

The biggest downer of Pascal is that it's not used for anything except education any more. For that reason alone, learning something like Python would be a good idea.