I was talking to a few people and the subject of learning programming languages popped up. The question was posed what language was easiest to learn. A few said basic, I said your first one, and there were the usuall JAVA and C/C++ cries somewhere way off in the crowd.
After much debate about witch basic was easiest they turned to me, knowing Im a Blitz Basic Fan and asked me what I meant by "your first one". My replay was simple, all be it a bit more complete, "The easiest programming language is the first one you try to learn.". Well after being laughed at I asked them each what was the easiest language for them to learn, with very few exceptions, BASIC. Then I asked them what was the language they first learned to use, and with even fewer exceptions, BASIC. Ironicly the JAVA guys were mostly C or C++ converts, and moving from C++ to JAVA is fairly simple, so naturally they found JAVA very easy to learn.
A study was done in the early 1980s by a University in the Washington DC area on this very subject. Unfortianatly, I have forgotten the schools name ( maybe Georgetown U ). Anyway, they took several new Computer Science studants, seperated them up into language classes. One group was given ASM, the next BASIC and yet another PASCAL. After a period of time ( I beleive a semester ) they switched the studants and what they found was really quite interesting. It seemed that the ASM studants picked up Basic or Pascal very well. Meanwhile, Basic and Pascal studants struggeled with ASM or BASIC ( for Pascal ) and ASM or PASCAL ( for basic ). Even though the ASM studants performed well, when surveyed they said ASM was alot easier than PASCAL or BASIC to learn. The study was repeated a few times and the results stayed constant.
So, if your thinking BASIC will be easier to learn than say JAVA or C++ you may just be fooling yourself. Choosing a language while your mind is free of preconceptions of how things should work is the best time to look for something a bit more versitile. As my dad always said, "shoot for the stars, after all, you can always ketch the moon on the way down.". In fact, if the study has any merrit it would imply learning a, so called, high level language might actually cause you more grief later down the road.
So what do you think?
After much debate about witch basic was easiest they turned to me, knowing Im a Blitz Basic Fan and asked me what I meant by "your first one". My replay was simple, all be it a bit more complete, "The easiest programming language is the first one you try to learn.". Well after being laughed at I asked them each what was the easiest language for them to learn, with very few exceptions, BASIC. Then I asked them what was the language they first learned to use, and with even fewer exceptions, BASIC. Ironicly the JAVA guys were mostly C or C++ converts, and moving from C++ to JAVA is fairly simple, so naturally they found JAVA very easy to learn.
A study was done in the early 1980s by a University in the Washington DC area on this very subject. Unfortianatly, I have forgotten the schools name ( maybe Georgetown U ). Anyway, they took several new Computer Science studants, seperated them up into language classes. One group was given ASM, the next BASIC and yet another PASCAL. After a period of time ( I beleive a semester ) they switched the studants and what they found was really quite interesting. It seemed that the ASM studants picked up Basic or Pascal very well. Meanwhile, Basic and Pascal studants struggeled with ASM or BASIC ( for Pascal ) and ASM or PASCAL ( for basic ). Even though the ASM studants performed well, when surveyed they said ASM was alot easier than PASCAL or BASIC to learn. The study was repeated a few times and the results stayed constant.
So, if your thinking BASIC will be easier to learn than say JAVA or C++ you may just be fooling yourself. Choosing a language while your mind is free of preconceptions of how things should work is the best time to look for something a bit more versitile. As my dad always said, "shoot for the stars, after all, you can always ketch the moon on the way down.". In fact, if the study has any merrit it would imply learning a, so called, high level language might actually cause you more grief later down the road.
So what do you think?