I don't see the problem with learning C++ directly - you don't HAVE to use the OOP right away you know. For example, cin and cout (which are C++ only) are much easier to use than scanf (not even supported anymore) and printf. Also those handy // comments that let you comment an entire line, yep they won't work in C. (not pure C anyway) Also in pure C you have to declare all the variables you are going to use in a function, at the start of the function.