Learn enough C to encounter the pain points C++ & Rust are trying to solve. C is simple, but not easy. Then learn enough Rust to be productive. Then learn enough C++ to interact with the enormous amounts of existing C++ code. Once you know a bit of all 3, decide where to focus based on the work you're trying to do. Rust is the easiest, but least widely supported. C is necessary either way, unless you're working for M…
> C is simple, but not easy. I think I know what you're trying to say, but unfortunately C is anything but simple. The semantics are riddled with surprises of all kinds. It's unlikely the average C programmer has never written a program with undefined behavior, for example.
Yes, I suppose "small" might be clearer than "simple". C is simple partly because of how little of what a computer can do it actually defines. That makes it more difficult to use, but the well-defined language is quite simple. Safe Rust tries to define all of that, so you can do everything the underlying processor is capable of, and becomes far more complex in return.