Python as a first programming language

[RocketLauncher]

I understand basic programming syntax and took a class on Java in High School (not a complete understanding of it by any means). I've been procrastinating what programming language to start learning since I was 13 and first tried and gave up learning C++, which I'm not sure why I started on it.

I'm interested in a lot of the free software and how many things are written in C for GNU/Linux. I really don't know where to start so I've been starting to learn Python based on the "Python Crash Course" Python 3 book, which is pretty good to learn from so far. I was wondering what the next course of action should be as I get more comfortable? Should I eventually go into C? I kinda want to work as a programmer but I also would love to just have it as a general skill of mine, because it's not like I'm not going to have personal reasons to code. And I want to finally understand GNU/Linux a bit better.

And lots of things seem to be written in C. But not everything. And I feel like I'm in a Spanish-speaking nation and I don't know how to speak the language when I see how much of it is around.

[xXOpkillerXx]

If you go with Python, try to stay within the Python 3.8 and above range. It has better typings support and a Lot of code in the pre-typings Python era was made by people who couldn't structure code properly; the language was too easy to do whatever you wanted with it, similarly to MATLAB for example.

If C/C++ is that much of a goal for you, you can always learn Cython afterwards.

[RocketLauncher]

Cynthon looks interesting, I'm not sure if I'll be able to take advantage of that or not but I eventually want to get over to learning at least C. Maybe Java. It's a bit hard to find my place right now because I'm right at the beginning, but I think that kind of thinking is what kept me away from succeeding and studying programming for so long.

[qqwref]

Learning the basics of C/C++ is useful, but it's not really a language you need to write things in unless you're very concerned about performance. It's very easy to do something a little wrong and lead to memory leaks or undefined behavior. There's also a lot of extra boilerplate code you need to write, although in that regard Java is even worse.

Python doesn't have those problems, but is much slower (still very fast with a modern computer, though!). Despite that, Python is very popular both among hobbyists and in the software engineering industry. Development time is quick and there are a lots of useful libraries that can be installed and imported easily. So I'd definitely recommend learning it.

[Rapta]

To decide what language you want to learn can be simplified into a couple of follow-up questions.

What do you want to program? A game? A server? Algorithms for data science? Something else?

Depending on your answer you can narrow down the languages to pick from.

While C++ can do many things very well, it's a very difficult language to learn compared to others that can do those same things.

I think it's a good idea to stick with Python for a decent length of time, working on multiple projects to gain experience. Once you are familiar with one programming language it's significantly easier to learn another one.

Feel free to reach out to me if you would like a mentor for the basics of Python.

[xXOpkillerXx]

I'd honestly never recommend learning Java. It's garbage. Learn C#/.Net instead if you want that kind of language.

[zatfer]

Python and Java for me

[Travis_Flesher]

If you start programming HTML, then you will start learning several useful languagues. ;