[baq]

Java is also a more sophisticated basic and is commonly taught as an introductory language.

I’d much rather be taught Pascal than Java. Probably 20 year old me would feel differently, but the 20 year old me was a much worse software engineer (actually, he was just a self taught programmer kid.)

[justin66]

> Java is also a more sophisticated basic

Is there some hidden context to these comments, like "we've all just inhaled industrial solvent fumes and then posted on Hacker News?"

[kristopolous]

right. "First Language" is a moving target and it is not something a language wants to have because you get a bunch of really crappy code in that language and it ruins the language's reputation.

After the rise of the web in the early 2000s it moved around a bit. Java, PHP, Ruby, Javascript, even Flash sometimes, but now it's generally Python and it's so far bucked the trend and managed to remain respectable. Pascal and BASIC had a grip on that slot probably since the late 1970s through maybe early 2000s. Before that it was Fortran.

I did y2k stuff 25 years ago, there's a lot of shit fortran out there.