Is python a good programming language to learn first? will it prepare you well for other languages?

Question

Is python a good programming language to learn first? will it prepare you well for other languages?

Answer 1

Yes, Python is a good programming language to learn first? It will prepare you well for other languages?



The only other language that might be better is C or C+. But C is more or a language for operating systems and PC appications, and Python is the more for the internet, games, and mobile apps and games.

Answer 2

Python is considered to be a "scripting language". Meaning that it is designed for writing some programs and utilities that usually perform a function on the computer such as running backups, monitoring servers, sorting data, etc. It is not used for creating games, apps, etc. It can be used behind a web page to interact things. But it is NOT considered to be a full "programming language".



Is it a good language to start with? Sure. Any language is a good language to start with because much of the logic you will learn is the same for every language. If you understand how to do a "for" loop. make a conditional decision, and how/when to call a subroutine, you can use that knowledge in any language. You just have to learn the syntax for the different languages.



You will find that Python is limited, it can not do a lot of things that "full" programming languages can. But you have to learn the fundamentals before you start getting into the advanced things. So Python is as good as any other language to learn.



You want to do serious programming, the language to learn is a version of "C". It is "the" programming language that everyone else wants to be. And most other languages borrow their logic and much of their syntax from C.

Answer 3

Yes and yes. Python is a complete, powerful and very good programming language. Large commercial systems are implemented wholly in Python (e.g. Bank of America trading systems)

dewcoons - It is not a scripting language.

Answer 4

Python is a very powerful language

it is used by MIT in their first few programming courses

(including programming for robotics)



Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science I

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-01sc-introduction-to-electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-i-spring-2011/



and Python is used by many companies

see what they have to say about Python here



https://www.python.org/about/quotes/



https://www.python.org/about/success/



it's a great language for statistics, charts and graphs

http://matplotlib.org/



and yes, you can make games with python



here's a FREE online book for game programming with Python and Pygame



Program Arcade Games With Python And Pygame

http://programarcadegames.com/



The book was written and is used by a professor for his Introduction to Programming class.

Since it is an introduction, it assumes no experience. So it starts off at the very beginning.



here's a video of a game one of his student's made

/watch?v=S7eMdoM1MTc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7eMdoM1MTc



nothing too fancy, but pretty impressive for their first game



and there's more examples on a playlist on that youtube channel



the Python book is full of videos and code and tells you how to install and get started with Python



there is also 3 hour tutorial video on the pygame home page - www.pygame.org/news.html

/watch?v=bMt47wvK6u0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMt47wvK6u0



(but starting with the book is easier)



After you've worked through the book, and watched all the videos and made a few games then you can continue with Python and make more advanced games (with advanced physics, AI, networking)



and when you're ready to move onto more advanced programming topics ...

Here's another FREE online book that uses Python.



http://interactivepython.org/courselib/static/pythonds/index.html



But this book is advanced, it's the kind of stuff computer science majors learn in their 2nd semester or 2nd year of school.



So you'll probably have to learn basic python first.

Answer 5

I've never honestly used Python, but Lua and C# were fairly easy to learn on. I understand a lot of people start with VB as well, but I personally never cared much for it.



I do know a few people that taught themselves Python, so it might be one that's easy to get with self-teaching.