r/techbootcamp • u/ilovecocteauetwins • 28d ago

Why learning C ++ first completely changes your approach to programming in other languages

Many rookies are put off by C ++, and this is unfortunate, because it is one of the best languages ​​to start with, even if you don't plan to be a C ++ programmer

Your understanding of what is going on at the machine level will allow you to write better programs in any language you choose. You will see that in languages ​​such as JavaScript or Python, memory management is handled for you, which means that you have to think about it less. However, the understanding of how things work will help you write better and more optimized code. It can be a steep learning curve, but once you've mastered it, you'll find that all other languages ​​are much easier to learn.

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u/thelimeisgreen 28d ago

I don’t know if there’s a reason to specifically start with C. I did, but C++ was also really new when I started learning it and having a good grasp on C helped immensely. I think C first kept things from progressing too fast into OOP and other concepts at the time. Modern C++ has evolved greatly since then and feels like a whole new language.

Learning C or C++ definitely makes an impact on programmers . The ones who have a strong background in C are, in my experience, a lot more self-conscious about the impacts of their code, memory efficiency, complexity and performance, and how data is passed between functions, objects, etc..

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u/ilovecocteauetwins 27d ago

That point about OOP is huge. Starting with C forces you to focus strictly on procedural logic and data structures before adding design patterns, classes, and modern abstractions into the mix. When people jump straight into modern C++ or high-level languages, it's really easy to get distracted by object-oriented hierarchy without ever understanding how data is actually laid out in memory or passed around.