21–28 of 28 posts
I'm specifically pointing at the highly voted posts mentioning C and Scheme.
Pulling on the parallel to human languages I'd say c is the latin equivalent (except that c is still actively in usage). Basically, c was there first, you could and still can build anything in c and though its easier than x86 its full of pendantic features much like the latin case system. Also because c has been so successful its had a huge influence on just about every succeeding language - again much like latin. So…
I'd say the English equivalent is PHP: a mongrel language that succeeded because it absorbed everything, where you can say things 10 different ways. Most developers know enough of the language to be conversant, making it a kind of lingua franca. From a historical viewpoint, English is just as much a weird mishmash of everything as PHP is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say the English equivalent is PHP: a mongrel language that succeeded because it absorbed everything, where you can say things 10 different ways. Most developers know enough of the language to be conversant, making it a kind of lingua franca. From a historical viewpoint, English is just as much a weird mishmash of everything as PHP is.
Speaking in English won't give you a heart attack.
You have a fairly good understanding already, although you have not realised it. Being able to see that there are a set of core principles (Meta principles, if you will) at work behind every language is a big (and hard) step for beginners to take. Alas, you already surpassed that point. Yet, you should not waste any time learning how to code . Invest your time learning about patterns. Every program out there is a pat…
Couldn't be explained better. Do you teach?
If you are serious about thinking that Latin would be a good precursor to learning other languages, then I would recommend that you learn Scheme. Scheme is a dialect of Lisp, which was one of the first programming languages. Scheme was designed to be used to teach the fundamentals of programming, and was used for quite a while at MIT in their introductory programming course. The textbook that was used for the course…
However, I wouldn't recommend either language as your first. I recommend starting with Python. It's an easy language to learn, but also powerful. It's closer to the languages that are used in industry, has a lot of libraries, and you'll be able to quickly develop useful applications in it, which will make programming fun.
After a few months of Python, learn Lisp and C. Like others here, I also recommend learning Scheme, which is a clean dialect of Lisp.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say the English equivalent is PHP: a mongrel language that succeeded because it absorbed everything, where you can say things 10 different ways. Most developers know enough of the language to be conversant, making it a kind of lingua franca. From a historical viewpoint, English is just as much a weird mishmash of everything as PHP is.
I think you got it :), also PHP is kind of like the "fluent in english" requirement on every job post. While we're at it, what would the Lisp equivalent be?