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Survey Results

What is the best starting language for a new developer?   [Edit]

Survey period: 7 Apr 2008 to 14 Apr 2008

Some developers start with scripting and move to high level languages, while other start with ASM and continue from there. What do you think is best way to start? (Suggested by Christiaan Rakowski)

OptionVotes% 
Assembler (any flavour)512.43
C30614.59
C++28713.68
C# / Java69633.17
Lisp150.71
Pascal / Modula / Delphi1266.01
Python361.72
VBScript241.14
Visual Basic26912.82
The first language will depend on what area the developer will want to work24111.49

View optional text answers (93 answers)


 
GeneralC# vs. C++ Pin
The Cake of Deceit13-Apr-08 7:51
The Cake of Deceit13-Apr-08 7:51 
GeneralCredit Card Transcactions Pin
jamesmani2k511-Apr-08 20:28
jamesmani2k511-Apr-08 20:28 
GeneralRe: Credit Card Transcactions Pin
NormDroid12-Apr-08 1:52
professionalNormDroid12-Apr-08 1:52 
GeneralRe: Credit Card Transcactions Pin
Enquiren13-Apr-08 10:01
Enquiren13-Apr-08 10:01 
GeneralRe: Credit Card Transcactions Pin
Paul Conrad12-Apr-08 9:31
professionalPaul Conrad12-Apr-08 9:31 
GeneralWhat is the difference between these languages ? Pin
Madhu Kampurath11-Apr-08 17:28
Madhu Kampurath11-Apr-08 17:28 
QuestionRe: What is the difference between these languages ? Pin
Danila Korablin12-Apr-08 19:53
Danila Korablin12-Apr-08 19:53 
GeneralRe: What is the difference between these languages ? Pin
Petr Prikryl15-Apr-08 0:47
Petr Prikryl15-Apr-08 0:47 
GeneralLanguage is not as important as age. Pin
snorkie11-Apr-08 9:39
professionalsnorkie11-Apr-08 9:39 
GeneralLearning with Pascal Pin
AmauriRodrigues11-Apr-08 8:45
AmauriRodrigues11-Apr-08 8:45 
GeneralRe: Learning with Pascal Pin
AspDotNetDvlpr11-Apr-08 9:02
AspDotNetDvlpr11-Apr-08 9:02 
GeneralRe: Learning with Pascal Pin
Ed.Poore12-Apr-08 13:02
Ed.Poore12-Apr-08 13:02 
GeneralRe: Learning with Pascal Pin
AmauriRodrigues12-Apr-08 13:41
AmauriRodrigues12-Apr-08 13:41 
GeneralMaybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
bwilhite11-Apr-08 5:58
bwilhite11-Apr-08 5:58 
There have been a lot of various answers to this survey which I find interesting. They seem to range from "learn how cpu's work first" to "get the guy coding." (As primarily a business person who codes software for the purpose of RESULTS, I tend towards the latter.)

However, it just occurred to me that this is probably the wrong question. Due to the growth of human knowledge, it has been a very long time since anyone was able to claim to even have a decent survey of all we know. Perhaps it has now gotten to the point where we can't even achieve that in anything but a highly specialized field and application. So saying, "x is the way to go because of y" is probably not a very good way to look at it, especially when y is something like "it's important to have an understanding..." We can recurse that statement "it's important to have an understanding..." as far as we like, as evidenced by the varying degrees of 'fundamental-ness' we see advocated by people making that statement. So 'learn C b/c it's important to have an understanding of y fundamentals...', no 'learn assembler...' no 'learn about cpu architecture...' no wait, 'we should learn about circuits...' The issue of learning logic, btw, should probably be separated from the issue of which language to learn.

When I was younger I was concerned with knowledge...how can I have as full and complete a knowledge as possible? That is not necessarily a bad question to have.

But I'm older now and I am now concerned with results...what tools do I need to get job 'x' done?
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Member 9611-Apr-08 7:50
Member 9611-Apr-08 7:50 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
bwilhite11-Apr-08 8:05
bwilhite11-Apr-08 8:05 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Member 9611-Apr-08 9:44
Member 9611-Apr-08 9:44 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Shog912-Apr-08 5:57
sitebuilderShog912-Apr-08 5:57 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Member 9612-Apr-08 6:47
Member 9612-Apr-08 6:47 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Shog912-Apr-08 7:29
sitebuilderShog912-Apr-08 7:29 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Member 9612-Apr-08 7:48
Member 9612-Apr-08 7:48 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
Enquiren13-Apr-08 9:43
Enquiren13-Apr-08 9:43 
GeneralRe: Maybe it's the wrong question.... Pin
cp987612-Apr-08 18:09
cp987612-Apr-08 18:09 
Generalc# ;) Pin
pmartike11-Apr-08 2:25
pmartike11-Apr-08 2:25 
GeneralRe: c# ;) Pin
Enquiren13-Apr-08 9:57
Enquiren13-Apr-08 9:57 

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