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Jeff K USA
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Joined: 30 Nov 2025
Posts: 19
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 Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2025 3:03 am Post subject: Can't decide.. Java or C/C++?? |
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Ok so I am wanting to get into programming and I thought about starting with learning C++.
But I started to teach myself Java a while back(didnt get far into it).
Now I am wondering should I start with C++ like I originally thought, or should I go with its early version of C or should I start with Java. I remember from before that Java is based off of C++ and is easier to use...
So was just wanting people comments.
Should I start with C or go ahead and start with a OOP Langauge?
Please list your reasons why or why not to choose one of the above.
For future references. I am going to start with one of the above please don't try and force apon me a different langauge or reasons why I should choose a different language. Thanks.
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Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn
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Joined: 18 Jul 2025
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Location: South Portland, Maine, USA, Earth, Sol System
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2025 4:55 am Post subject: |
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What do you want to program?
Programming for Windows you want to use one of the .net languages. C# is a great choice here.
If you want to program a game, C++ would be a good choice.
If you want to program Linux system utilities (non-gui) C or C++ would be a good choice.
If you wanted to program Linux GUI stuff then C++ and learn either GTK2 or QT4.
Java is a bit weird and unless you are concerned about cross platform compatibility via a single binary (compile once, run anywhere) then for my money Java is not where it is at.
Now. How tech savvy are you?
Have you used the command line extensively (in linux or windows)? No? then you want a good IDE. Codeblocks for C and C++ is okay but Eclipse for Java is much better.
Are you comfortable with your computer on a scale of 1-10? 1-5 Java might be better, 5-8 C++ is a good choice, 9-10 C it is man!
How well do you know the internals of your computer? If you could build a microprocessor given enough transistors, solder, and time then C (or even assembly) is the way to go. If you could probably build one given the parts to put together and even understand a little bit how they work C is still an excellent choice. If you know kinda what is going on in there but no real details C++ is probably a better choice. If it is a black box of mystery Java is the way to go. at least for now.
What about Python? or Ruby? are you doing Web work where PHP would work better?
I don't have enough detail to recommend any one language.
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VHockey86
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Joined: 12 Dec 2025
Posts: 988
Location: Rochester
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2025 7:27 am Post subject: |
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| Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn wrote: |
I don't have enough detail to recommend any one language. |
Normally I'd make a biased push for Python, but since you don't want to hear about that 
I personally don't like Java, however I think it's definitely a lot less archaic than C++, and easier to learn. It's more "purist" OOP too, kind of enforces OOP by nature of the language, whereas C++ is more of an OOP hack on top of C...and don't even let me get started on the mess that is templating. Compiling/linking and the overall build process for C++ is a bit messier too, and varies from distro to distro (library locations, etc) and is even worse when you do anything cross-platform.
Eclipse makes programming in Java very easy (good auto completion, shows syntax errors without compiling, etc) - I've never found an IDE for C++ that didn't seem like a big mess, but then again I haven't done much c++ in quite some time. You can add plugins to eclipse for doing GUI design and stuff in Java, and the libraries are all part of the standard library, no need to worry about the system having QT or GTK or whatever installed.
In Java you tend to get much more helpful compiler errors than GCC. Run-time errors always throw some sort of an exception in Java, making it easier to debug. Get used to seeing "segmentation fault" in C++ if you're not really careful about memory management, pointer arithmetic, etc.
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Jeff K USA
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