[Prog] A good language to learn?

[Sue Stones]

Interesting list of reasons, I will comment on a couple of them.  These are my 
opinions.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 12:00 am, Gil Jacobs wrote:
<..>5. Proficiency  in C++ makes Java easy to learn.

A very odd reason to learn C++, Java is easier in many respects than C++ to 
learn, it puts more constriants on the programmer than C++, and may be a 
'safer' language for a novice.  If you want to learn them both I would 
suggest that you learn Java first, it will tehn be easier to lear the more 
complex and larger language C++.


> It seems to me that the advantages of C++ outweigh the disadvantages by
> far. As I see it the disadvantages of C++ are that it is difficult to learn
> and that it is not as logical as Pascal (my favourite language!).

I can't understand what you mean by this.  Certainly Pascal is easier to 
learn, that's because it was designed to be a teaching language rather than a 
production language.  But there are very few differences between Pascal and C 
or Java or C++, except in increasing complexity.  They are all from the same 
family of languages and use the same logic.  The only diference that I can 
see is that Pascal, because it is a begingers language spells things out, and 
is more wordy in its syntax.

eg Pascall       if condition then something 
cf C/Java/C++       if (condition) something


However I would say that when you learn your second language you are aware of 
all the differences from the first language.  After that you become aware of 
the similarities, this in the end makes it easier to learn new languages.  So 
what is a good language to learn next depends  in part upon what other 
languages you have already learnt.  If you main programming so far has been 
pascal then perhaps learning C of Java micht be better than C++.

Ont he other hand if you subjectively want to learn C++ then that is the best 
reason of all to learn it I think.  It doesn't matter what anyone else says 
if that is what you WANT to do.  There is certainly no reason why you 
couldn't learn C++ at any stage in your carrer.

sue