I think that static vs. dynamic typing should replace the memory management question.

Yes, a good programmer (and one working on low level) will need memory management, but nearly all modern languages (perl, all other "scripting" languages, java and all function programming languages) hide memory management from the programmer. With good reason, IMHO.

I think the more relevant question is if the programmer should first learn how to deal with static typing (like in Eiffel, Java or Haskell, or less rigorous in C/C++), or with dynamic typing.

I started with basic (which has no user defined types at all, iirc), and then learned C and Eiffel. With Eiffel I learned about the benefits and harm of static typing. I had no problem learning other statically typed languages (like java) and dyamically typed languages (mostly perl, but also scheme and a few others).

Since I can't repeat the experiment the other way round, I have to ask: Who has learned a dynamically typed language first? How hard was it for you to learn statically typed languages?

I think you should learn both, but which one first?

(As a side note I could imagine that learning perl first "spoils" you as a programmer, i.e. you never want to miss it's dwim'miness.)

In reply to Re: Perl as one's first programming language by moritz
in thread Perl as one's first programming language by amarquis

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