<p dir="ltr">I remember perusing the different "x as a first language" search results a while ago, circa 2003?, and came across a book that made a lot of sense. It was called assembly as a first language. It made the point that a future programmers first language should be closest to the bare metal, exposing the way a computer actually functions earlier. As opposed to other languages which abstract away the bare metal. Although the C language is supposed to be closer to the bare metal than most languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It's was available for free online, at least back then.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Nov 27, 2015 2:08 PM, "Paul Cartwright" <<a href="mailto:pbcartwright@gmail.com">pbcartwright@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I just installed pascal... See free <a href="http://pascal.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">pascal.org</a> .waaaay back in my Atari st days I ran Alice pascal.. Then I took C during my AT&T days on a real UNIX computer..<br>
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Sent from my iPad<br>
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> On Nov 27, 2015, at 12:14 PM, DJ-Pfulio <<a href="mailto:DJPfulio@jdpfu.com">DJPfulio@jdpfu.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> C is best learned after an interpreted language teaches basic<br>
> programming skills, IMHO. Python is a good first language. No need to<br>
> be a python expert, just functions, i/o, layout, version control, and<br>
> TDD to start. All of that translates easily to C.<br>
><br>
> C is a jumping off point for all compiled languages - like C++, C#,<br>
> Java, .... Dart. Learning C teaches the language that most other<br>
> languages were built from originally. C memory management is critical to<br>
> understand. All languages basically use it under the covers. Learning<br>
> function pointers would be helpful to understanding how OO works under<br>
> the covers.<br>
><br>
> Lots to know.<br>
><br>
>> On 11/27/2015 11:35 AM, leam hall wrote:<br>
>> Also, something from the book. Zed recommends knowing another<br>
>> programming language before trying to tackle C. For those expressing<br>
>> interest, I can say that so far the book seems easy to read and most<br>
>> Linux users could get at least as far as I've gotten.<br>
>><br>
>> However, if we're starting in Jan, then you have a month to play with<br>
>> Python, Ruby, or similar to get your programming feet wet. :)<br>
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