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From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn
 C or Pascal?]
Date: 1996/07/28
Message-ID: <dewar.838609515@schonberg>#1/1
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references: <sperlman-0507961717550001@p121.ezo.net>
 <01bb73e3.1c6a0060$6bf467ce@dave.iceslimited.com>
 <1996Jul20.124025.122789@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
 <tequila-2007961836190001@tequila.interlog.com>
 <01bb7b06$311fabc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>
organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-07-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Tim recommends

"Assembly -> C [non-GUI] -> C-GUI -> C++

All the rest of the languages are variations on the same theme.
Here's my rationale ...

Assembly:   Learn what's *really* going on.  The most important."


I strongly disagree. A student treading this path will have a hard time
learning what abstraction is all about. Teaching abstraction is the
biggest challenge in teaching at an elementary level. It is possible
to recover from a (mis)education that follows the path above, but
very difficult for most people.