15.02.2018 Published on: Conclusion I would just for learning to programme, . not recommend learning C/C++ as your first programing language better go with Python Also, if you do not know why you want to learn C/C++, better do not spend time on it. My C/C++ background Most of my professional programming career, around . 10 years I have spent writing C/C++ programs By professional programming career, I mean that other people have paid me to write code. I have spent more time in C/C++, altho I would say that I know Python better than C/C++. My knowledge of Python is better because . Python has fewer features than C/C++ and you do not need to do memory management Why C/C++ is hard IMHO C/C++ is hard due to many features and memory management. By the time you understand memory management, you can learn 80% of Python. Just look at this image of . code that is concentrating 2 strings in C vs. Python Yes, there can be less C code (error checking, free, few const less) and the code would still work. But then I would be showing bad C production code and not be . demonstrating how real-world C code should be written It is and that is what you get if there is no proper error checking in C. not fun to debug segmentation fault Python code could, and in real life should also have , but I have removed it to because it is not necessary like in C. if __name__ == "__main__": Point is that . higher level programing language (Python in this example) is doing a lot of low-level things automatically So, you need , what means fewer possible bugs, resulting in . fewer lines of code increased developer productivity The . tradeoff is more CPU and memory for faster time to market C and C++ are two different programming languages Here I am using a language construct C/C++. Because most of the code bases (at least that I have seen in a corporate environment) are some hybrid of C and C++. My theory is that the older code was written in C and then later they added object-oriented programming (C++). But . C and C++ are not the same programming languages, mental programming models are quite different C code is about structure, functions, and pointers. In C++ you have object-oriented programming and lot of other features. In the , so that is why I use C/C++. real world, you need to know C and C++ When you should learn C/C++ The only positive thing that I can see that . person will learn from learning C/C++ is manual memory management and pointers Basically better understanding how the computer (on software level) is working. If your only reason is to have a better understanding how the computer (on software level) is working, better learn C programing language. C has fewer features than C++. because then you should know manual memory management and pointers. It is easier to learn C++ if you know C But for anything else than few niches (system, embedded, banking, game engines, etc), I do not see a much practical use of C/C++ in the year 2018. Probably you ain’t gonna use C/C++ I am not saying C/C++ is . not in use anywhere in 2018 I personally (almost every month) get some interview requests for C/C++ positions. Usually, they are either for embedded software © or banking industries (C++). . I am just arguing that beginners (persons that do not know any programing language) should not start with C/C++ The only exception is if you are planning to get a job (or start your business) in C/C++ environment. If it is not for the job/business, I do not see why you should learn C/C++, except for hobby. But even then, . get a better hobby 🙂 P.S. If you, dear reader, think that I am missing some point, please add it in comments. Originally published at buklijas.info on February 15, 2018.
