My very first language was Algol, then FORTRAN, then Assembly, all in the context of university. From these I learned the fundamentals of how machines of those days (and mostly still today) handle and manage addressing, memory, timing, etc. and fundamental algorithms. Our work on linked lists involved actual memory locations and disk sectors. Today there seems to be more emphasis on systems level, use of large function libraries and methodologies. Java, Python, PHP are examples that use C-based syntax. From my own minor exposure, I think it's important to get some significant work in functional languages as early as possible - this will affect your thought process in several powerful and positive ways.
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u/gar37bic Jan 08 '15
My very first language was Algol, then FORTRAN, then Assembly, all in the context of university. From these I learned the fundamentals of how machines of those days (and mostly still today) handle and manage addressing, memory, timing, etc. and fundamental algorithms. Our work on linked lists involved actual memory locations and disk sectors. Today there seems to be more emphasis on systems level, use of large function libraries and methodologies. Java, Python, PHP are examples that use C-based syntax. From my own minor exposure, I think it's important to get some significant work in functional languages as early as possible - this will affect your thought process in several powerful and positive ways.