Some people think that because Python is the easiest language to learn, it's going to be easy to learn programming with Python. But learning programming is still very hard, so many abstract concepts to grasp. Python just makes it a tiny less hard, almost insignificantly now that we can use an LLM to learn the syntax faster than than ever.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (6 children)

It's also important to note that you might come out ahead in learning those abstract concepts using a harder language.

But my first language was Pascal. from a book stolen from my dad's library. Then C++. I still wouldn't call myself anything other than an amateur.... I mean, my dad can do more with one line of C than most programmers can do in their entire career. (he really shouldn't. but he does. Calls it "job security".)

[–] asyncrosaurus 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I was hacking scripts and web shit together in perl, python and php for many years before learning C, and just a couple months learning C/C++ made me understand so many more basic concepts than all previous years experiences combined.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Try assembly then - it'll freaking blow your mind!:-)

[–] asyncrosaurus 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I took a compiler course focused on optimization and porting. So I worked with x86 and ARM. There's very little reason in modern computing to write assembly by hand, but it's still useful to be able to read and understand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Having to work within such constraints, it really showed me difficulties that modern languages try to entirely abstract away from you. e.g. there are only so many "registers" that physically exist, before you have to start using much slower to access memory locations - a very far cry indeed from automated variable garbage collection!!

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