C++ is terrifying, and teaching an introductory programming course in C++ is an awful idea. Using plain C would make much more sense. C is also a better choice than Java because Java doesn't force you to learn about pointers, or memory in general, really. Countless Java bugs are introduced by programmers who don't understand what operations give you a copy of something, and which ones give you a reference to something (especially if that something is mutable).
I also think Objective-C is pretty good though, especially with the addition of ARC. It's like a better C, with Smalltalk-style objects and a lot more (mutable and immutable) datatype options. Much saner and less painful than C++, but more challenging than Java.
Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go
by argv_empty on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @10:29AM
(#5368594)
Java doesn't force you to learn about pointers, or memory in general, really.
Countless Java bugs are introduced by programmers who don't understand what operations give you a copy of something, and which ones give you a reference to something
These two statements seem to be at odds with each other.
Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go
by LinaLauneBaer on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @04:52AM
(#5367472)
The Objective-C garbage collection is deprecated.
I hated C++. I still think it's a fairly terrible language. But, for fun I took the Harvard CS50 course to refresh my knowledge of C and I found that WAY better than my C++ course. I think C is brilliant for introducing programming because it's very very simple, yet also very very difficult. There's not much to learn, except a lot of concepts (memory usage, data structures, etc).
I also think Objective-C is a really great language though, so I might be crazy. But, you give me a choice between C++ and a language that is basically C with a few additional keywords and garbage collection, and I find that an easy choice...