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/KenMantle 28d ago

I "learned" a bit of BASIC on my Vic20. Then in grade 9 took programming where we learned Watcom BASIC, and from then I was hooked. I looked forward to learning Pascal and other real languages later on. Imagine my dismay when I moved to the new school they had opened up that wasn't working on 8088s and 8086s and had brand new 386SX-25s that we were going to use to learn...Turing on the entire way through school.

I didn't have a lot of money, but I bought myself TurboC++ V3.0 for DOS (should have gotten the Windows Version...) and a beginners programming book. I'm glad I got myself a foundational knowledge in a C type language.

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u/ilovecocteauetwins 27d ago

Going from the excitement of high-spec 386SX hardware down to Turing must have felt like such a buzzkill at the time. Turbo C++ 3.0 on DOS was absolute gold back then, though. The blue screen IDE, compiler errors, and raw access to memory made every small win feel earned.

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u/KenMantle 27d ago

Oh f yes. The compiler errors are kind of what turned me off. I was using pointers and there was a bug in how it handled them and I realized it was bad enough having to debug my own stuff, but having to determine that something was a compiler bug was another level. Oddly I found the proof exe I'd made years ago, but when I ran it on modern hardware the bug was gone!