Best Introductory Programming Language

I've always thought Java was an awful introductory language. It's a decent teaching language but in order to actually understand what's going on and why, you need to already be familiar with huge swathes of modern computer science.Python is even worse, because it's so high level and so much happens 'by magic'. Don't get me wrong, it's a great teaching language because it does cover so much ground, but it's terrible as a first introduc

I'm not in academia, but in my experience, abstract thinking and problem solving skills matter way more than language syntax knowledge. I've learned Python, PHP, Javascript, C#, SQL, VBScript, Java and some other things in the course of just working for different clients and companies. I was able to learn these things because I know how to learn.If I were teaching students the way you're trying to, I guess I'd start with Python because it's almost pseudocode which mak

Many years ago I learned programming that way. Pascal then C, Assembler and VB Script. I completely agree with the argument that it is a great teaching language. Our teachers even explained this to us. JS, C, C#, Python and Java syntax is just crazy for real newbies. Curly braces basically do not exist in normal life and scare people. And Go and the functional group of languages are just not understandable with their concepts. Imperative programming is much easier to understand.Pascal is in a

IMO - verbosity, typing and compilation all get in the way of teaching a lot of the basics (logic, control flow, scope, functions, objects). With JS/Python, I think students can make small wins faster which helps them stay motivated. I say this as someone who watched 3 people decide CS wasn't for them after taking intro classes that focused on Java.

Python is such a better language for teaching programming and CS fundamentals than Java or C++.There is of course a case to make for teach C , ASM or LISP first.Trying to teach something like OO best practices will be lost on students if they haven't done enough programming to understand code complexity and why OO might be a useful paradigm.Java is especially bad because you need to use the static keyword as well and the System.out object just to get "hello world" working

Your first programming language doesn't have to be a practical language, and it doesn't have to be powerful. Small languages which allow students to master the entirety of the language are a better tool for building confidence and teaching elementary ideas like sequence, variables and iteration. For the first steps of dipping your toes into programming, BASIC is better than Python. An ideal curriculum will expose students to a progression of languages as they outgrow the limits of each

I think teaching java or c++ to people who are just getting started programming is absolutely stupid. These languages have every possible paradigm crammed in to them so it's an absolute cognitive overload. Same thing can be said about JavaScript.I would teach rust as a low level language because the compiler forces you to internalize a very specific pattern of thought that is also useful when applied in other languages. Likewise I'd teach clojurescript rather than js for similar rea

You need to remember that 6.001 is an /introductory/ programming course. Presumably most of the people taking it at MIT have done some codework before : ] but an intro. course is an intro. course. The question of what language to use is a pedagogical one, not a question of thoroughness.

My opinion might be unpopular but I think neither are good as first languages.The reason is that both languages mix many programming paradigms.I think it is better to introduce programming paradigms one at a time. Once you understand the paradigms, you can move from language to language effortlessly.When I introduce people to programming, I start without code. I start using cooking recipes as an example. The ingredients are the input, and the recipe is a function that produces an outpu

I got intro'd with C. Enjoyed learning the low level concepts but I aint managing my own memory anytime soon unless I need that heap blazing fast.Python was my vehicle to prototyping and implementing educative programs, I can hardly recommend anything else for a beginner. And arguments like other langs call this X are poor IMO.The world of programming languages isn't 1 dimensional and no one should honor this notion of implied consistency that pleases your (and a student's)