What language to learn first: C or C++?

[san_fran_crisko]

Hi,

Apologies if this has been covered already - I searched but couldn't find anything relevant.

I am looking to learn both of these languages mainly because I am in a bit of a dilemma career-wise. To be as concise as possible (this aint no agony aunt page I hear you say!), I would like to move in to writing music for games but be more involved in developing middle ware tools to increase interactivity (buzz word since 2005 and still hasn't abated) and other audio elements of the game engine. The industry doesn't want a musician who can't do anything else because of budget constraints, so multi-taskers are in huge demand in this area, doing similar stuff to what I described.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on whether one should learn C before C++ or its OK to go straight in to C++? I have a bit of experience in Java but essentially, I would be entering in to this with very little knowledge as I have not done any programming for over 3 years and the height of my Java programming was being able to create a simple puzzle game.

Any opinions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[mrnutty]

Just go for C++. Learning C afterwards will be easy. And you will see
the real difference between the two.

[Narue]

>There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on whether one
>should learn C before C++ or its OK to go straight in to C++?
Anyone who claims that one is a prerequisite for the other is misinformed. You can learn them in either order, just pick the language that appeals to you more. But I do recommend learning both eventually.

[Frederick2]

I think Narue's idea is really good. I'd learn both. Old C books and tutorials in C are easy to find and inexpensive. Start 1 chapter at a time in each and you'll soon find that one reinforces the other.

[Dany_08]

You have already done java and thats an OOP language.
so,i think you should go for c++ because they are more related.
And as for C, speaking from my own experience after doing C++, C will take only few days.

[san_fran_crisko]

You have already done java and thats an OOP language.
so,i think you should go for c++ because they are more related.
And as for C, speaking from my own experience after doing C++, C will take only few days.

Thanks very much for your replies and opinions.

Dany_08: very interesting you should say that - I read about the fact C++ is an OOP language whereas C isn't (or doesn't have as many elements of OOP?) and initially thought, 'Brilliant! So is Java. C++ and it are more related than C and C++ for a beginner'.

Working at an engineering company that makes broadcasting equipment - the R&D department know C++ as well as a host of other languages, but use C for programming our units up and saying all you need is "C". They were giving me biased opinions it appears! Wanting me to join their team as quick as possible.

Thanks for throwing some objectiveness in to the mix! I think I'll go with what I was 70% swayed towards doing initially - learn C++.

Thanks for everyones' input!

[CppBuilder2006]

my teacher taught me C & then i learned C++ self-taught.
if you learn C it will be easier for you to solve problems yourself. if it is important for u.

[Narue]

>if you learn C it will be easier for you to solve problems yourself.
As opposed to if you learn C++ it won't be easier to solve problems yourself? What a ridiculous notion.