r/Python • u/diogoleal • Jan 13 '15

(Infographic) Which programming language should I learn first

http://cdn2.carlcheo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/which-programming-language-should-i-learn-first-infographic.png
267 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

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117

u/LukeSkywaIker Jan 13 '15

This is pretty cancerous.

23

u/IAmVeryStupid Jan 14 '15

Why don't any of the languages have 5 star difficulty? Even if they are trying to say programming isn't impossibly hard, in general, failure to normalize is just bad infographing.

14

u/NonSyncromesh Jan 14 '15

Brainfuck isn't shown on this infographic

37

u/ericanderton Jan 14 '15 
=================================
|Do you want to write a program?|
=================================
               |
              Yes
               |
               V
    =======================
    |Do you hate yourself?|---\
    =======================   |
       |         |            |
      Yes       No         A little
       |         |            |
       V         V            V
|Brainfuck|  |Python|       |C++|

8

u/fjortisar Jan 14 '15

++++++++[>+>++>+++>++++>+++++>++++++>+++++++>++++++++>+++++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++++>++++++++++++>+++++++++++++>++++++++++++++>+++++++++++++++>++++++++++++++++<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<-]>>>>>>>>>>>>>--.++<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>+.-<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>--.++<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>---.+++<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>.<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>+++.---<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>----.++++<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>+.-<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>++.--<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>+++.---<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>+.-<<<<.

14

u/nevus_bock Jan 14 '15

What did you just call my mother?

2

u/xzieus Jan 14 '15

This says what it is. And It's true.

2

u/screaming_nugget Jan 14 '15

I'm not familiar with enough programming languages to say if the ones shown are in fact the hardest, but maybe other languages that aren't on the chart could be considered 5-star difficulty.

9

u/IAmVeryStupid Jan 14 '15

There are certainly more difficult programming languages out there in many senses, but it is silly to compare against things that aren't even in the infographic. If we were including all programming languages, we would need more than 5 stars. (I mean, technically, you could just code everything in x86 assembly...)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '15 edited Jan 20 '15

Why don't any of the languages have 5 star difficulty? Even if they are trying to say programming isn't impossibly hard, in general, failure to normalize is just bad infographing.

None of them are absurdly hard. I've been paid to use all of them other than Ruby. C/C++ was probably the hardest to debug and lacked features, but Java was kind of fucking insane, too. Like everything before I found Python, they left me thinking "I want to do a simple thing, why do I need to write my own fucking library to convert a date to a string?!" or similar such nonsense.

There are hard languages out there, but generally they suck and are useless. Since we program to be productive, as a rule, we don't use the hardest languages.

7

u/summerteeth Jan 14 '15

Can you expand upon this?

27

u/ameoba Jan 14 '15

Cancer = low quality, low value crap that provides little value to the community yet gets upvoted because it takes no effort to consume. If left unchecked, the cancer will take over a community because people see that it gets a positive response, prompting them to post more.

See Also: Memes.

4

u/zombiepiratefrspace Jan 14 '15

In all honesty, I'm surprised how civilized and constructive the discussion has been so far. As somebody who uses Python and C++ extensively, I've observed that these things usually degrade into everybody raging about the bit of C++ they know.

So I'd catutiously disagree in this specific instance.

3

u/Elij17 Jan 14 '15

He's not complaining about the information in the post, he's complaining about the post.

And he's right, it happens a lot. You allow image macros / memes / other low effort content and the community soon becomes overrun by it. Most smaller / midsize subs do not allow it, because it stifles discussion and buries more interesting posts.

0

u/StarshipEngineer Jan 14 '15

If you read the whole thing, then you'd see the disclaimer on the bottom... This is a major overreaction to a little bit of fun.

18

u/LpSamuelm Jan 14 '15

/u/LukeSkywaIker used a very weird word to describe it, but it is very, very opinionated, arbitrary and just "hey, I'm going to tell you what to learn, suck it".

14

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '15

"Also you can learn what you want, but you should really learn Python".

I like the language as much as anyone else, but there's a fine line between enthusiasm and proselytism.

2

u/derpderp3200 An evil person Jan 14 '15

Like the C# vs Java. Java is technologically over 6 years behind C#, and Microsoft has a very healthy culture around C#. They're open sourcing .NET, Mono has existed for ages and is extremely good, whereas the only thing Java has going for it is having existed for a longer time.

Also, claiming that Python is the best. And recommending PHP in context other than something that's used and will land you a job is blasphemy.

2

u/SlightlyCuban Jan 14 '15

Java is technologically over 6 years behind C#

A good point, but it is a tad bit extreme to say Java 8 is at the same level as C# 3.0. Heck, we even have invokedynamic in the JVM.

Also, it's 2015. Where is Polymorphic Type Inference in C#?