Ep. 6 - Which Programming Language Should You Learn First?

Quincy reads his popular article on how to choose your first programming language when you learn to code.

He discusses Python, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, and C++ in terms of:

the job market for the language - the long term prospects for the language - how easy the language is to learn - what projects you can build while you’re learning (and share with friends so you can stay motivated)

Read by Quincy Larson (https://twitter.com/ossia)

Article link: https://fcc.im/2yCMatt

Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org

Music: "Sounds of Wonder" by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2yQOq0q

Transcript:

Most people’s journey toward learning to program starts with a single late-night Google search.

Usually it’s something like “Learn ______”

But how do they decide which language to search for?

“They always joke about Java on Silicon Valley. I guess I should learn that.”

Or:

“Haskell. So hot right now. Haskell.”

Or:

“That Go gopher is just so gosh-darn cute.”

And then there’s the rest of us. We’ll probably search for something like:

“Which programming language should I learn first?”

Few questions are so commonly asked that they get the full infographic treatment. But this is one of them:

Deciding on your first programming language can be a fun process — kind of like one of those “Which Quentin Tarantino character are you?” personality quizzes.

But before you run off to learn Ruby because you enjoyed playing with Play-Doh as a kid, let me remind you: the stakes are pretty high here.

It will take you hundreds of hours of practice to become even remotely competent with your first programming language.

So you should consider the following factors:

the job market for the language

the long term prospects for the language

how easy the language is to learn

what projects you can build while you’re learning (and share with friends so you can stay motivated)

Every year brings new programming languages, and with them, new academic papers. And new web comics.

Seriously. Check out this gem from last month:

When it comes to choosing a first programming language, there’s no shortage of options. To narrow it down a bit, here are the most common Google searches related to learning programming, over the past 12 years:

Java has had its ups and downs.

Python has gradually risen to become the most popular choice.

But tucked away below these is the Little Engine That Could, slowly choo-choo’ing up in popularity over the past few years. And that engine is JavaScript.

Before I talk about these programming languages, let me clarify:

I’m not arguing that any one language is objectively better than any other

I agree that developers should eventually learn more than one language

I’m arguing that first they should learn one language well. And — as you can probably guess from the upside down text in my headline — that language should be JavaScript.

Let’s kick things off by exploring how programming is currently taught in school.

Computer Science 101

Universities have traditionally taught programming under the umbrella of computer science, which itself is often seen as an extension of mathematics, or tie-in to an electrical engineering degree.

Of course, as you may have heard by now:

“Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter.” — Eric S. Raymond

As of 2016, many universities still treat programming like it’s computer science, and computer science like it’s math.

As a result, many introductory programming courses focus on low-level-of-abstraction languages like C, or mathematically-focused languages like MATLAB.

And department chairs generally stay the course, pointing to annual programming language leaderboards like the TIOBE Index, or this one from the IEEE:

Most of these leaderboards look virtually identical to how they were 10 years ago.

But change does happen. Even in academia.

In 2014, Python overtook Java as a the most popular language of instruction at top US Computer Science programs.

And yet another change is bound to... eventually... happen.

Because if you look at the languages actually used by the workforce, it paints a very different picture:

JavaScript is by far the most popular language used by the 49,397 developers who responded to Stack Overflow’s 2016 Survey.

More than half of all developers use JavaScript. It’s vital to front-end web development and increasingly relevant for back-end development. And it’s rapidly expanding into areas like game development...