programming-for-dummies

Choosing Your First Language 51
extremely well (and hopefully prove useful enough to solve other problems,
too). BASIC was designed to be easy to understand. C was designed to create
efficient and powerful programs.
Book I
Chapter 3
BASICally disrespected
From a financial point of view, BASIC programmers usually earn less than C
programmers, even if they’re doing the exact same job. Part of the reason for
this is that BASIC suffers from the perception that it’s a toy language — unsuitable
for commercial use. Although that was true at one time, the BASIC language
has evolved to the point where it can do practically anything C or other languages
can do.
Types of
Programming
Languages
Although you can use BASIC to create anything from satellite navigation
systems to Wall Street financial trading programs, BASIC programmers will
probably always get paid less, so you’ll need to know another language like C
anyway, just to get paid more. Because BASIC programmers tend to get paid
less than other programmers, many programmers feel that they might as well
skip BASIC and just figure out C instead.
C, it’s kinda hard
There’s nothing wrong with studying C as your first programming language.
The biggest problem with C is that it’s not an intuitive language for beginners
to learn and understand. With its cryptic syntax and odd use of symbols in
place of actual words, understanding C means trying to figure out how to program
while also wrestling with trying to figure out C, which essentially doubles
the effort needed to know how to program a computer.
As a result, many beginners get frustrated with C as their first programming
language and wind up more confused than ever. Imagine how many people
would want to drive a car if it meant knowing how to refine their own gasoline
and build their own engine. Understanding C isn’t quite as difficult as refining
gasoline or building a combustion engine, but it can seem that way, especially
when you’re programming for the first time and you start with the C language.
So if you’re going to begin programming, you should definitely understand C
eventually, but not necessarily as a first language. You don’t need to know
BASIC, but BASIC can definitely help you understand how programming
works. If you figure out BASIC first and then figure out C, you’ll know two of
the most popular languages on the planet.
The more programming languages you know, the better you can understand
the benefits and drawbacks of all programming languages, including favorites
like BASIC and C. Ultimately, the best programming language to discover first
is the language that makes programming easiest and fun for you, whether
that language is as simple as BASIC, as arcane as assembly language, or as
obscure as SNOBOL.