Kenneth.O

C doesn't give me anxiety

The first programming language I properly learned was C, I somewhat knew HTML at the time but I never really did anything with it. It was originally my dad's idea to get me to learn C, he used to tell me how "back in his day" he learned a few "Computer languages" as he called them, the languages he learned were:

He used to be very interested in software when he was much younger(he is more of a hardware guy now) and since I also had an interest in tech when I was much younger (even now) he wanted to get me on track as early as possible. So I started learning C, at first it was pretty intimidating because 'what do you mean I am going to learn how to make software with this, it looks so difficult' -> that was my mindset at the time before I started. But over time I found it pretty easy to understand, not like so easy I can do anything with it, easy in that I can make simple but interesting programs with ease but it will be very challenging to make complex programs. I think a much better analogy would be -> you have a bucket of Lego bricks and you can make simple but pretty structures if you are creative enough, but if you want to build something as complex as, lets say, a very detailed passenger airplane...yeah that would take sometime and a lot of Lego bricks.

The bugs that I triggered while learning this language were really cool, I accidentally created the Matrix scrolling text effect by messing up a print function. I think that's considered an 'Undefined behaviour', it's only with C/C++ where you find something like that lol.

Overtime, I learned other languages like C++ (which was a natural progression from C), Java, Python, Kotlin, C#, javascript (never learned this formally, it was more out of necessity) and Matlab (I am not sure if that counts). And so far, I never really liked them, I either found them really boring or just "too much" for me. I know it sounds crazy that I find something like python "too much" for me, it is a pretty simple language and I am probably quite biased because C was my first language, but..... I feel like whenever I do anything with python I end up not understand anything, it doesn't make me fulfilled or happy, it makes me anxious.

It's not just python, I have nearly the same issue with each of the languages I listed, with the exception of C++. My relationship with C++ is weird, the C++ features are just overwhelming for me (not all of them). I am not really a programmer I mostly just engage with software from a curious and creative point of view, so I could just be mentally unprepared for something like C++ or just stupid.

C is just simple, and that's it. It doesn't make me overwhelmed, I am not constantly asking 'what does this do' because it constantly satisfies my curiosity, it doesn't overwhelm me with features I would never use and it was my first language, and you never forget your first.

I have nothing against anyone who uses any of those languages, they are incredibly useful for various use cases, I don't want this to be some language argument that doesn't go anywhere. I think these languages are cool in their own right, I was messing with J2ME (Java microedition) like 2 months ago, I made a nice image viewer that runs on a Symbian phone (the old "java phones") and I made a few graphics applications with python.

At the end of the day I am just some person on this massive rock with my own opinions.

And thank you very much for listening to my incoherent rambles,

Kenneth.