Name: Anonymous 2012-05-29 19:43
C is the second best general purpose programming language, but there is a far cry between the second best and the best. C has a wonderful machine model and it is a very small language. The problem with C is that it is so small that it doesn't contain enough support for modern programming techniques. C has insufficient support for object-oriented programming and no support for generic programming. It's a great structured language, but that's all. Unfortunately, C is still with us today. C was very popular; Unix was written in C. For some insane reason, GNU/Linux and most GNU/Linux programs are still written in C. I believe that the underlying reason is lack of vision. Anyways, C should not be used in this day and age. C should not be learned. C should not be taught. C is not a stepping stone to learning C++; it is a detour. I myself learned C two years before learning C++, and this was a mistake. It is best to learn C++ directly and to never waste time with C. If for some reason you must later program in C, you can quickly learn to give up the conveniences of C++ and learn C style. There won't be unlearning involved, because C simply doesn't support C++ techniques. If you learn C before C++, as I did, you will have to unlearn C style and C constructs. While I am a rapid unlearner, you probably aren't, and in any case you shouldn't waste your time with it.