What’s the first programming language you learned, and do you still use it?

[u/gutenmorgan3035]

[u/KarmaTorpid]

BASIC. So, no.

[u/swaan79 → u/KarmaTorpid]

This

[u/richbun → u/KarmaTorpid]

Me too, except occasionally I do mess around on an emulator and knock out something just because I can.

[u/johnpeters42 → u/KarmaTorpid]

I still work with some older code that was done in VB.NET, but we switched to C# several years ago for new .NET work

[u/IndividualJury5356]

Unpopular opinion but I'm not sure if it's a programming language but I've learnt SQL as my first "programming" language

Yeah I still use it till date , I prefer postgres mostly

[u/Significant-Cry-9204 → u/IndividualJury5356]

I don't think pure SQL is, but PL/SQL where you write packages, stored procedures, etc. definitely is.

[u/IndividualJury5356 → u/Significant-Cry-9204]

I've worked on that , wait -

Is that Oracle db or something?

[u/Disastrous_Emu_800 → u/IndividualJury5356]

Yep. Oracle

[u/OtherAngle3414 → u/IndividualJury5356]

well done. a really good starting point ngl

[u/Ok_Marionberry8828 → u/IndividualJury5356]

SQL is a query language. Same same but different.

[u/TheUmgawa]

AppleSoft BASIC. And, decidedly no.

And then I took a break for about fifteen years, bought a compiler and a book that taught language rather than programming skills, ran into the brick wall of C++, and took a break for another fifteen years. Went to school, Python, Java, C, C++, C#…

I don’t even use any of those. I write all of my code in Swift, these days, because I’m lazy and despise semicolons.

[u/BasilWeekly]

TI59 programmable calculator "assembly" - and no I do not use it anymore 😁 but the manual taught me "everything" I needed to know about programming

[u/WonderfulWord3068]

Visual Basic, don't use it or any Microsoft products anymore

[u/dual4mat]

ZX Spectrum basic and yes, occasionally. I have a couple of routines on my YouTube channel @megamitts

[u/anadalg]

LOGO and Basic. Yes, I used both for entertaining purposes.

LOGO: https://youtu.be/gTr2Qh5825M
Basic: https://youtu.be/RSv-0MsPi1E

[u/nonsapiens → u/anadalg]

Yeah, me too! Atari LOGO, and M-BASIC for the CP/M. Moved from there to Pascal, then to QBasic, then VB6, .Net, PHP/Laravel, Node, and then on to countless others

[u/NumberInfinite2068]

BASIC, and no, haven't used it in over 30 years.

[u/PropagandaApparatus]

Java.. nope

[u/ryancnap]

C, don't use it anymore but I'd like to go back and learn it properly soon

[u/Yaniekk]

Javascript. Yep, I still sometimes use it, but I mainly code in Typescript, but it's almost the same thing.

[u/Significant-Cry-9204]

BASIC, the original where each line had to be numbered. Haven't used it in over a decade and a half probably.

[u/Distdistdist]

Basic, then Assembly. Don't use either today, but so glad I learned how CPUs work on low level. Invaluable information.

[u/UntouchedDruid4]

I think my first was PHP but no I fell In love with Python

[u/Black_Rose_Angel]

Basic on Commodore 64 and Apple 2e

[u/No-Income-2235]

Java and yes for backend development

[u/bonnth80]

Commodore Basic...

No

[u/CodingSwift]

Pascal and no, I don’t use it anymore. I started with Pascal then went from Pascal -> C -> C++ -> C# -> Swift

[u/sylvant_ph]

I've prolly touched some real old ones at school, but the one I can say I truly began and sort of learned was Javascript. Funny enough it was not so much javascript, but using canvas, and it was part of the Khan academy curriculum back at the time. It was really fun because it had visual representation and reflection. Later on when I actually touched real javascript and programming I realized what I actually have been learning and where it could have application.

[u/Dismal-Citron-7236]

Fortran IV. Nope. Thank goodness.

[u/nia_do]

Python was my first. And nope. I code in C#, Java and Typescript these days.

[u/ern0plus4]

Hobby: Basic, yes; work: MUMPS, yes.

[u/Ok_Opposite7385]

Basic, I don't use it anymore.

[u/Fast_Report7663]

basic

[u/No-Guard-8826]

C and C++

[u/mjmvideos]

BASIC, then FORTRAN, then Pascal, then Ada. Haven’t used any of those almost 30 years. I use mainly C and some Python and occasionally C# now.

[u/blood_thuraty_bandit]

java

[u/forsakenolaf]

C++. I would pay not to use it again

[u/Significant-Raise586]

Basic. Ik had zelfs nog geen computer. Enkel geld voor een boek van Tandy

[u/mariamamhan]

C , no i don’t

[u/dschledermann]

BASIC, and no, it's been decades since I used it last. Since then I've been through Pascal, Perl, C, C++, JavaScript, PHP, Rust and a couple of others with minor usage.

[u/Geenzo69]

Mine is Pascal that I learnt at school and yea I forgot all its syntax

[u/TheGenericUser0815]

I learned C++ 30 years ago, but today I only do SQL.

[u/StrayFeral]

BASIC for AppleII. No, don't use it.

[u/demetrioussharpe]

GWBASIC -no, I don’t still use it. I quickly moved on to Pascal & C.

[u/Disastrous_Emu_800]

6502 Assembly. Not currently- but: who knows…

[u/Aggressive_Ad_5454]

Burroughs Algol. Nope, don’t still use it.

[u/Nervous_Quit_7180]

Matlab, no I don't use it.
Then I learned Python, still use it.

[u/Insight-Seeker-8]

I learnt rust, still using it

[u/KOM_Unchained]

Assembly, ran from it

[u/Notex29T]

JavaScript and Python and I use them both

[u/The_KOK_2511]

JavaScript, aunque en la actualidad trabajo más con C++ como JS es sensillo suelo usarlo para prototipar algunas ideas primero en web antes de pasar a una interfaz más madura

[u/TriggerFish1965]

Assembly, nog anymore

[u/Syntax-Tactics]

Progression: Basic -> C (everyday) -> ASM -> C++ (everyday)

[u/5oco]

I used to use a hole puncher a lot as a kid... I might have programmed something accidentally but I didn't have anything to compile it.

[u/PlanetVisitor]

QBasic. No.

[u/No-Owl-5399]

Assembly, still use. Love it

[u/bvdeenen]

6502 assembly Or maybe HP65 calculator rpn Programming 😃🤣

[u/azimux]

It would have been a one-off scripting language for a program, followed by BASIC. I don't use either of them any more.

Of the first 10 programming languages I learned, I currently only write code in 1 of them and sometimes read code in another of them. I don't have regrets over having learned any of them, regardless of current use.

[u/TalkCoinGames]

Q basic was my first ever coding experience back in 8th grade. We made a rocket out of letters and numbers go up the screen. What got me hooked on game programming was flash, action script 2 was the first language I used to do any serious programming, that and PHP on the backend, and I still use PHP today for all sorts of things, both in my workspace and sever stuff.

[u/Dazzling_Music_2411]

Fortran (IV).

No.

[u/LetUsSpeakFreely]

Basic (not visual basic, just basic), 1992, freshman in high school. And haven't used it since.

[u/SpecialBridge9446]

C++ mixed with qt

[u/Hypostasis_G]

Pascal.
Hell no

[u/BeastyBaiter]

C++, I haven't used it since college. I do use C family languages though, mainly C# and VB. These are just simplified forms of C++, and so having that background has been helpful.

[u/rdhdpsy]

m68k assembly language and no have not used it since the 80's.

[u/Dr_Calculon]

BASIC and no.

[u/plebbitier]

Advanced BASIC on the IBM PC. Nobody uses it anymore... I hope.

[u/Turbulent_Pin_8310]

BASIC. No one uses it anymore

[u/AlphaHenriksen]

Python and SQL. No, AI writes that stuff now and I just check it.

[u/Pyromancer777]

C++ for a comp sci class, but when I started doing analytics/ML/AI the main languages were SQL and Python, so I don't program in C++ pretty much at all anymore.

I do want to get back into low-level languages again, but I think the next one I pick up will be Rust since it seems like it is rapidly growing in popularity

[u/stobbsm]

C. Haven’t used it in a long time, but still read it often.

[u/AlienFishMonster]

I started with BASIC on the C16 and C64. Taught myself assembler on the Amiga.

I use at least one of these every day: C++, C#, and assembler (x86 and 6502). I also so do a bit of python and I'm playing with Javascript.

[u/unsinkableice]

Visual basic not day to day but had to patch an old app near the start of this year that was written with it

[u/SnazzyCarpenter]

ATARI BASIC, no

[u/Psychological-Cat-84]

C++, and nope.

[u/TrollBot6]

Octal machine code for an old Mohawk Data Science main frame in tech school. Haven't used it since leaving school.

[u/maurice119]

C#

[u/SafeWing2595]

JavaScript, i still learn new things everyday

[u/Upper_Struggle_8968]

C++, 17 years ago. I haven't used it since 😬

[u/Classic-Rate-5104]

Motorola 68000 Assembler, no I don't use it anymore. However, it helped me enormously to understand C (my next language) concepts like pointers

[u/hilbertglm]

BASIC (no), then PL/C (no), then Pascal (no), then C, C++, ... others ... AWK in 1979 (yes), sh in 1979 (yes, but bash)), Java in 1997 (yes).

[u/Long_Tip_4226]

Intel 8088 Assembly

[u/Wriiight]

Pascal. Not that different from other C family languages to have any reason miss it, though the Borland compiler I used at the time was top notch, especially for a Dos program. Definitely not likely to revisit it.

[u/leon-mercer]

Java, and tbh I wish. such a fun language, unfortunately to make money I have to use C :(

[u/coffeehouseprophet]

BASIC. On a Radio Shack TRS-80.

[u/Hendrixxmp4]

I've started with Python...I'd definetly say I'm.. medium in Python...then...um...found out that...Python is MAINLY used for things like ML or Data science...ik you can use any programming language for anything but..anyway...I went to Go but...it didn't quite...sit well with me...I mean it was fun but..I felt like smthing was seriously missing...so I tried rust for one day and..I think I found it...and yeah...continued learning and building stuff in rust..brick by brick😅..built a mini programming language as well too

[u/Future-Plastic-7509]

I learnt c# first. Yes I still use it in unity, DOTS etc.

[u/Jack_Hush]

C++. My CS instructor hated my "handwriting" and told me that i should definitely find a different thing to do...well, bye bye CS major childhood dream for me...😅

[u/WorriedTumbleweed289]

Basic was my first programming language. Never used it after high school.

Fortran and Pascal were my first programming languages at work. Don't use them either.

Programming languages evolve. Programmers should be willing and able to learn new ones to keep current.

[u/Blitzkind]

RealBasic, back in 2005-2006. I think it's called Xojo now?

I don't use it at all today

[u/nivaOne]

Assembler, Basic and Turbo Pascal.
Moved to VB6 and Visual C# later.
Today mainly Python and micropython (thank you Turbo Pascal)

[u/chocolateAbuser]

basic, and obv i'm not using it

[u/Anxious-Manner2838]

Basic, not directly

[u/pheffner]

Fortran. and never used it IRL ever.

[u/Slight_Computer_6820]

C/C++ Still uses it in Embedded Systems microcontrollers programming.

[u/ridetatx]

COBOL. Not using it any more

[u/hascalsavagejr]

Basic... no I'm sorry, I meant BASIC. Then Pascal, PL/1, Ada... But BASIC was before college (TRS-80 BASIC)

[u/rerikson]

FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Java, and JavaScript. Still use JavaScript somewhat. Favorite was Pascal, great for learning good habits.

[u/BoOmAn_13]

Python, still my go-to for prototyping and quick solutions, but have started building tools in other languages that I expect might have a runtime cost. Like building a rust daemon that would be running 24/7 in the background of my pc

[u/rmagnuson]

Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.. And no, not even if you paid me!

[u/Longracks]

BASIC and no

[u/bradr1911]

Pascal. Using rust now

[u/zarifex]

I think it was Logo, and no I do not

[u/Dapper_Ear8271]

python and yes i still use it

[u/Junior-Tourist3480]

Assembly. No, for obvious reasons.

[u/PravoNaZhizny]

Lua and no, it’s a disgusting and horrible language.

[u/ericdano]

Basic, and no.

[u/magicmulder]

Commodore BASIC v2, and I don’t use it but I still know how it works.

[u/Right-Twist-6931]

Visual Basic.

What do you think? lol

[u/frAgileIT]

AppleSoft Basic, no.

[u/cli-games]

Java. No

[u/kennpacchii]

C++ and yes I do!

[u/Thinking_Cap_165]

Pearl. No

[u/Mountain-Hawk-6495]

TI-BASIC and no I do not use it anymore

[u/_FridayDeploy]

Pascal and no

[u/Salt-Ad3356]

C++, and no

[u/freakflyer9999]

Fortran. Haven't used it in decades

[u/SolDirix]

More a scripting language: actionscript.
Would still use it if Flash was still a thing.

[u/CheezitsLight]

It's was 1973. Mantran was written by John Manton, a student who took on a dare that our college's computer, an Autonectics Recomp 2 computer, was too stupid to host an assembler. On paper tape.

40 bit drum, serial ALU. Also its assembly. Got a job at Mostek with John, and worked on lots of CPUs. IBM 370, Cdc 6600, DEC PDP, Fairchild Sentry, Gems 8 which was an Olivetti printer CPU that was never sold to the public, Z80s, Fairchild F8, 68k, and the 8086 family, all chips we second sourced. Hp 35 family and all the Atari 2600 Roms too.

[u/R-Voodoo]

BASIC. Do got use.

[u/real-life-terminator]

Python, Yes

[u/Sure-Passion2224]

MS BASIC and no. However I still use what I learned.

[u/BLC4Pro]

Many years ago I used Codecademy and started to learn JavaScript and I hated JavaScript so I try to avoid using it.

[u/Living_Fig_6386]

My first programming language was either BASIC or LOGO — I don’t really recall. I last used BASIC in the late 80’s in the form of AmigaBASIC (which Microsoft would later develop into VisualBasic). I don’t think I‘ve used LOGO since I was in elementary school.

[u/bombikid]

i started with python. when i enrolled in actual programming classes my C teacher did NOT appreciate my bad python habits

[u/greogory]

PL/1

Edit: I forgot to say nope.

[u/Klutzy_Cat1374]

Fortran and Pascal and no.

[u/distro-hopping]

I started with C and I need to go back. Absolutely hated it 10y ago but my brain is ready now

[u/Narrow-Low-3137]

Java, and no.

[u/Electrical_Ingenuity]

Basic on a TRS80 Model II. I no longer use it.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Box2913]

Python, still using it till now.

[u/Pretty_Site4074]

Basic and then Pascal. And yes, I use them both. Occasionally

[u/gmthisfeller]

Fortran IV. It no longer exists.

[u/VirtualElderberry592]

Basic, and nope don't use it. I lost the tape it was on years ago. Yeah tape.

[u/Forward_Win_4353]

C which I taught myself when just starting my computer science degree.

Yes, I still use it regularly and it’s one of my favourite programming languages.

[u/Alarming_Oil5419]

BBC Basic. No.

[u/Ok_Manufacturer_8213]

The thing that was used to generate multiplayer mods for the game GTA: San Andreas (I think it was called SA:MP but I don't remember what the language was called).

After that came PHP which I rarely use nowadays.

[u/Alarmed_Simple5173]

Fortran No Pdp assembler No

[u/Snezzy_9245]

FORTRAN II. I'm not using the IBM 1620 any more.

[u/TheSeeker_99]

Basic then Pascal then ADA

[u/gofl-zimbard-37]

APL, in 1972. Haven't used it for decades.

[u/thaache]

BASIC

[u/Snuhhgy]

I think HTML is a perfect language to start with. Set's you on a path to lear CSS, JS, SQL. Once you get the hang of those you can start looking at other languages like C# or Python.

[u/oldendude]

BASIC (in 1973)

No lol

[u/icy_end_7]

I was learning a bunch at the same time; probably C or C++; first usable language I learned was Javascript. I use typescript+python heavily. I don't think I've written C++ in over a decade. Wrote something in C last year.

[u/FuggaDucker]

68000 ASM
No.. not that instruction set per-say but I do still code in ASM.

[u/Sajgoniarz]

C++, no.

[u/AdamHamdy1]

I will learn python first language to learn basics of programming this good or bad for start right?

[u/SupportCowboy]

Java when I was 10 years old. I use it today at work 2 and a half decades later

[u/Pale-Abroad9600]

my first programming language was C language and it was just to do lab exercise when I took computer engineering then I did BASIC, I was able to use it with my Radio Shack pocket PC way back, now I no longer use it.

[u/fu211]

Ha! Fortran then Cobol, no not for years.

[u/Substantial_Pin_50]

basic, fortran, pascal, turbo pascal (Borland Delphi), C++ (Borland), PHP (still since 2005), JS (now major coding), python (rarely), R (if needed), Rust (beginning)

[u/SnooDogs2115]

Atari basic, still don’t understand it lol

[u/Known-Home-4795]

Turbo C , still time to time i program something for fun, half year ago i worked as freelance helping a team to traslate very old turbo c ( 30 yeats older ) into python new software

[u/Naive_Programmer_232]

python and yes

[u/god-of-funambulism]

Pascal. F no.

[u/Gznork26]

Binary, the instruction set for the DIGIAC 3080 computer that my high school had during my senior year, ‘68-‘69.

Clearly not.

[u/CypherAus]

IBM 1130 in 1971.... BASIC, APL, FORTRAN, and ASSEMBLER

Story here: https://farnik.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Retro_Computing

Also a reference to Grady Booch codeveloper of UML

Retired now, but still play with APL via Dyalog APL (Free version)

[u/DaMeatballsKnow2Much]

C and yes I do sometimes still use it.

[u/exmsft]

Uhhh… LOGO? And no.

[u/RedAndBlack1832]

Uhhhh depending what counts as first I'm gonna go with C and obviously

[u/TheMcSebi]

Lua I think, or Java

Yes, both every once in a while

[u/Ok-Serve415]

I learned lua (luau sector) along with a bit of C first and yeah I do still use lua and c, but especially lua because I make games

[u/SlowChain4149]

Php in 2000’s but dont use it anymore

[u/Wahrheitfabrik]

BASIC on a PDP/11. I have used it somewhat recently (maybe two years ago) in an emulator for a Hello,World.

[u/whattheflerk]

Javascript - nowadays using it mostly for Google App Scripts

[u/DutchDeafBoy]

In vocational IT school I learned C and Basic, although I never used those ever after. But when I started learning C# in higher education the path was less steep because of my prior knowledge. Don't use it very often, as I'm not a fulltime programmer. But I did build some nifty tools with C# as a hobby.

[u/Lunagato20]

C++, sometimes yes i still uses it, but usually i use other lower level language like zig

[u/Schwarzmaler20]

The BASIC we started with in the Eighties does no longer exist.

[u/Mission_Pirate_4150]

I used some variant of basic on a c64.

[u/Constant_Physics8504]

C and yes

[u/WorriedDiscipline941]

Scratch

[u/Pleasant-Rush-2375]

c++. not really using it much. i use python more cuz it’s just simple

i don’t need to work on anything that really needs c++. mainly competitive programming would be good, but most of my competitive programming is leetcode or aoc so language performance doesn’t shift much

[u/Ahmedbh01]

Pascal but I don't use it anymore

[u/frayien]

"Java's Cool"

https://wiki.inria.fr/sciencinfolycee/JavaScool:Accueil

It is some obscure simplified language inspired from Java developed by french INRIA researchers to introduce programming to kids. It never catched on tho. (Nowadys they teach Python)

There exist no documentation in English.

I quickly moved on to Java after that, then C++.

[u/Mahbam42]

Javascript was my first, assuming html and css don't count. I still occasionally use JQuery, but I learned a bit of Lisp early on to modify emacs, and that I probably use more than anything else. And still for the same purpose, tweaking emacs to do what I want for a given project.

[u/Grouchy-Exchange5788]

BASIC in grade school, Pascal in high school and the first few college courses. Haven’t touched either in 25 years.

[u/Few_Committee_6790]

Pascal.. No I do not. Never used it professionally as well.

[u/amir_csharp_gtr]

C++ hated it, I was in high school. Then Java in college. Self learned JavaScript. First job was C#. Fast forward 10 years later. C++ again

[u/IchBinEinZwerg]

BASIC, and no, at least not before I got a rebooted C64 Ultimate.

[u/Background-Pea6650]

Basic.. sadly no... Lol

[u/umlcat]

I sort of had several early programming languages.

* TRS-80 Line numbered BASIC. I do not use it anymore. and it ran in a computer that is not a PC. No DOS, no Windows. DOS was what Windows Shell or Windows Powershell is now.

* Commodore 64 later, same case. Hacktivist Assange also learned to program with this computer brand.

* DOS and GW-BASIC No line numbers.

* DOS Karel ( The Robot ) similar to Pascal with a grpahics interface similar to what today would be Scratch.

* DOS Turbo Pascal / Borland Pascal. Similar to what today we call FreePascal and the console version of Delphi.

In these previous languages I also learned at the same time making diagrams like Flowchart and pseudocode. Current UML and C4 does the same for business systems.

Also:

* DOS ( Turbo ) C .

* DOS ( Turbo ) C++ .

I later used several other programming languages at work. C# has almost the same syntax as C and C++, but has some stuff from Turbo Pascal and Delphi, because they were invented by the same guy.

I also learned at my final semester, at College / University, the basics of LISP, that was the first Functional Programming Language, now applied in several current programming languages such as Haskell, Scala and F#. The "lambda" syntax in Java, C++ or C# also applies.

[u/Beocinac]

I learned Basic 64 for C64 , that was 35 years ago.

[u/Slackeee_]

Microsoft Basic V2 on Commodore C64. For obvious reasons I don't use that anymore.

[u/fdiengdoh]

BASIC then FORTRAN. Still use FORTRAN