Universities finally realize that Java is a bad intro programming language

I'm not sure I'd consider a decision to move from Java to JavaScript an improvement. They are going from a bloated syntax to a bad-habit goldmine. Why not go Java -> Python instead?

>Java is popular, certainly, but it’s also extremely clunky and syntactically bloated.

And Javascript?

Javascript is a great language to learn to program because it gives you feedback. Middle/High school students get something showing up and keeping them engaged.

However, in uni I think Javascript is a very bad first language because there is a level of focus expected (and required eventually for them to be good developers) that you don't need Javascript to help with. It's better to pick a language like Scheme or Python to teach the /ideas/ of programming first and then transition to C/C++ or even Java.

I agree. Although JS is a powerful language, it is not suitable to teach in an introductory environment. How about C? It makes the student grasps not only logical constructs but also introduce a portion of computer organisation and architecture.

This came up a when this same news was discussed a few days ago on some other site: The JavaScript first manifest: https://gist.github.com/rtoal/046c7be95aa077a832fcd87f5b0244...

It makes a rather good (IMHO) argument that while, yes, JavaScript sucks, it does have redeeming qualities for usage as a first programming language.