Choice of Language for an Introduction to Programming Course
Jeffrey L. Duffany · 2013
There are over 300 programming languages currently in existence today however only about a dozen of the most commonly used languages would be candidates for use in teaching an introductory programming course to engineering students. This short list would likely include languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, MATLAB, OCTAVE, R, Python, Ruby and Visual Basic. One approach would be to use a language such as C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java or Ruby which tend to be lower level languages with a more difficult learning curve for beginning programmers. Another approach would be to use a language like MATLAB, OCTAVE, R or Python which are higher level languages with somewhat less difficult learning curves for beginning programmers. Advantages and disadvantages each of these approaches is discussed as well as other general considerations for choosing a programming language for an introductory programming course for engineering students.