mirror of
https://github.com/mfocko/blog.git
synced 2024-11-22 04:53:47 +01:00
blog(first-language): add stub
Signed-off-by: Matej Focko <me@mfocko.xyz> Signed-off-by: Matej Focko <mfocko@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
parent
5728170a57
commit
c39768d820
GPG key ID:
7C47D46246790496
1 changed files with 102 additions and 0 deletions
102
blog/2023-12-xx-first-language.md
Normal file
102
blog/2023-12-xx-first-language.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
title: First language for programming
|
||||
description: |
|
||||
Thinking about the issues that can arise from making a wrong choice for a
|
||||
first programming language.
|
||||
date: 2023-12-29
|
||||
authors:
|
||||
- key: mf
|
||||
title: a.k.a. passionate Python hater
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- teaching
|
||||
- beginners
|
||||
hide_table_of_contents: false
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
I recall my first-time experience with programming quite vividly and also at the
|
||||
time of writing this post I have been teaching _Foundations of Programming_ for
|
||||
5 years already.
|
||||
|
||||
Let's talk about the first language beginners come into contact with hands
|
||||
on[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
:::caution Spoiler alert
|
||||
|
||||
At one point or another, this post will turn into full-blown Python rant as it
|
||||
is the most common choice for the first language.
|
||||
|
||||
:::
|
||||
|
||||
## My journey
|
||||
|
||||
:::info
|
||||
|
||||
I'll start with my own journey, so you can take in account any bias that I have.
|
||||
|
||||
:::
|
||||
|
||||
I will describe my journey by taking two _very_ different paths, self-study and
|
||||
the high school experience. Self-study path begins just a year or two before the
|
||||
high school and majority of the time they overlap which certainly creates
|
||||
a unique experience.
|
||||
|
||||
### Self-study
|
||||
|
||||
My first time touching a proper programming language was around ‘11 and it was
|
||||
a VB.NET[^2]. If you have a look at this language, it is a rather verbose
|
||||
language. However if you understand English, it is very easy to read because of
|
||||
the said verbosity. When you dig deeper, you may find some very weird stuff
|
||||
going on, like indexing of arrays, or even allocating arrays that preallocates
|
||||
one more or one less[^3] element than the specified size. Syntax is also quite
|
||||
unusual with apostrophes marking the comments.
|
||||
|
||||
Overall it's not that bad and the book I've had[^4] was rather nice. In
|
||||
retrospective I would say that VB.NET is very nice first language, because it's
|
||||
easy to write and read and yet is quite powerful.
|
||||
|
||||
Next step in my journey was Java. I have followed the book _Java 7_ by
|
||||
_Herbert Schildt_. Java has been with me for a long time. I have to admit that
|
||||
I've been going through this book for multiple years and more than likely it's
|
||||
the root my “hate” towards Java.
|
||||
|
||||
In retrospective I consider Java very primitive language. You might disagree
|
||||
with me on this one, but if you think about it, Java is very simple language in
|
||||
the sense of syntax and what it can do[^5]. And yes, there are lots of people
|
||||
that consider C# the _Microsoft's Java_[^6], but you cannot hide the fact that
|
||||
in the recent releases there are features that are almost 1:1 taken from the C#
|
||||
and implemented in the Java. Most of them are _quality of life_ things that make
|
||||
the life of the developers less painful. All in all, there are still many things
|
||||
that you need to workaround in Java by abusing interfaces and design patterns
|
||||
and some of those things can be done in a very simple way in other languages[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Around the time of attending the high school C appeared in my life… I think I've
|
||||
seen C for the first time in the lectures from FIT CTU[^8]
|
||||
After C we have a mayhem of anything and everything.
|
||||
|
||||
Looking back I have to admit that I've managed to move from Java towards C# as
|
||||
the preferred language, though this has not been reflected in my professional
|
||||
experience (both working and teaching) and I haven't even touched the C#
|
||||
recently apart from the LeetCode challenges.
|
||||
|
||||
### High school
|
||||
|
||||
Pascal
|
||||
|
||||
Python
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]:
|
||||
I'm purposefully leaving out educational “languages” like Scratch,
|
||||
[Baltík](https://www.sgpsys.com/infovek/index.htm) or
|
||||
[Imagine](https://imagine.input.sk/index.html).
|
||||
|
||||
[^2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_(.NET)
|
||||
[^3]: I don't even remember which one :smile:
|
||||
[^4]: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/microsoft-visual-basic/9780735645332/
|
||||
[^5]:
|
||||
We also need to keep in mind the aphorism: “All that glitters is not gold”
|
||||
and the fact that syntax sugar can be abused and get very hard to process
|
||||
for people; yes… I'm looking at you Python…
|
||||
|
||||
[^6]: vomits violently because of the Microsoft; C# is nice though
|
||||
[^7]: decorators are something for a long-haul discussion by itself…
|
||||
[^8]: _TODO_: add lectures
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue