Re:Being a Non-Hacker in a Hacker's World
by comatose_kid on Monday October 08, 2007 @05:02PM
(#64964)
K&R is a great book to learn C from. It is short, the authors are programming greats, and as a bonus you get to learn a little about how the Unix programming model works.
And just to be devil's advocate, C is a fine first language to learn - it is small and encourages you to understand what the machine is doing. C++ on the other hand is not a fun place for beginners to hang out.
Just because most CS depts start freshmen with Java doesn't mean that Java is a great first choice.
I think learning C and Python/Ruby would make for a pretty nice combination.
And just to be devil's advocate, C is a fine first language to learn - it is small and encourages you to understand what the machine is doing. C++ on the other hand is not a fun place for beginners to hang out.
Just because most CS depts start freshmen with Java doesn't mean that Java is a great first choice.
I think learning C and Python/Ruby would make for a pretty nice combination.