I was just wondering what your opinions were on this. I have heard that it is a good idea to Learn C before C++. But I also have heard from other sources that it is not a good idea to learn C before C++.

If you are going to program in C, learn C. If you are going to program in C++, learn C++. Having learned C first, it was easy for me to pick up C++, but it still took me a long time (as if starting from scratch) to program in a "real" OO way, as opposed to C run through the C++ compiler.

If your interest lies in language design, by all means learn C as well, plus Objective C, Java, and C#.

Steve

it doesn't really matter, imo, but if you take a beginner's c++ programming course at a uni or junior college, you do invariable learn some c in the process.

It depends on your interests, but no, technically you don't need to know any C before doing C++

Actually, I'd say that learning the procedural
C before the object-oriented C++ is an obstacle ;)

The fact that they have many common keywords
and share constructs like tests and loops doesn't
mean that one has to know the older one first.

Cheers,
Tink

I love C, C is maybe one of the nicest programming luanges there is.. you can do anything you want with it.. yes its a small, yes its tricky, but its sure fun..

I still voted that you shouldnt learn C first.. I did, it screwedup my OO thinking for years. Learn C++ first, thats where you get the (work) done.. lean C to get your cool home stuff running ;-)

/me high-fives worldmagic ...

Cheers,
Tink

Having learned object - oriented programming first, I'd say it doesn't matter because every project is different, so if it were me, I learned OO first then ventured to structured programming. It's really up to your own purposes.

I'm not so good at C++ (I stink) but I didn't learn C first. I learned Perl.

Because of the mistakes made by the designers of C++ you cant learn C++ without learning a little C.

Learning C first or C++ first, you will end up learning C.
Why? Because real C++ means "class" and "objects" and it's a real complex object oriented programming which is not really appropriate for the beginners.
No C++ beginners' books or course teach you that real C++ concepts straight away. They will teach you the procedure C feature of the C++ first.
So even If you learn C++ first,(learning by reading books or taking a course), you will learn only the C feature of the C++, meaning it's the same as C.
So no matter which one you start learning C or C++, you will actually start learning C.

Absolutly righ. They made a mistake by making C++ to be compatible with C. The result is that half object-oriented badly designed language. Java designers corrected this mistake by making the Java very clean and pure object oriented and that end up to be incredibly well designed language.

I Think that the main problem that occurred with C++ was that it came about as a language, but there were no standards of how to use it. Java on the otherhand came in to being with standards of how it is is to be used. Good C++ coders can design apps that are just as object oriented as Java code but, it isnt a requirement by any standards to do so.

Then, there were different vendors supplying different proprietary class libraries (STL, MFC, Roguewave, Home rolled, Database access libraries, etc) , in an attempt to compensate for the deficiencies in the language and the lack of standards...

I wouldnt spend any time learning C, unless I planned on doing lowlevel coding, at the OS Level, or Embedded systems development where memory is very limited.

moeminhtun & others,

There are actually some text for teaching C++ which does not introduce procedural programming (at least one text anyway). I don't know its name, but I remember reading that a university was using it as course material for newbs and according to the article, it was a successful approach at getting the students to enter the OO paradigm. I makes good sense to me, if you can structure your text well and introduce the concepts in a well thought out manner with out getting to complex up front.

I wish I could remember the text's name...

But I do agree that learning C++ first would be to your benefit, but generally in doing so, you will be exposed to some C (many texts I've seen often have contrasts to C )

Cheers..

Personally, I learned java first. Then I picked up some C++. Though I haven't done much programming in it , the migration was fairly painless. I've looked at C as well, and to me, C++ is easier than C.

So, no, you don't need to learn C before C++.