[acorkery]

I really enjoyed this article. I started out programming in C, then quickly on to Java.

I didn't appreciate the language at the time, but with hindsight, the fact that you need to worry about memory allocation and performance means you've a better understanding of what's happening on the underlying system.

It should never be taken off CS courses!

[ejk314]

I completely agree. I took one semester of Java then one semester of C when I was first learning to code. I think that extra semester of C gave me a significant advantage over some of the other programmers in my next school because I had a much better understanding of what was going on under the Java straight-jacket.