A friend of mine seeks to learn Javascript programming but he never programmed b

Question

A friend of mine seeks to learn Javascript programming but he never programmed before. I've found Python as a quite nice language that takes most unneeded "strangeness" out of learning programming while remaining useful. Personally my first language was Pascal and while experimented a little with C++, C, Java, C#, Php and Javascript, I then found Python and this is actually what I most of the time use for years. I find Python a good language to introduce most programming concepts in a way where you can focus on the concept and not on the language. Actually imho Python has only 1 big gotcha, the significant whitespace, while other languages often feature more that is unnecessary when introducing today's programming itself (like overhead, pointers, implicit conversions, operator overloading, etc.). I've also heard that many instructors use this language to introduce programming concepts, and I tend to agree with this choice.

As Javascript has it's own strenghts and weaknesses as an programming-introductory language, I wondered whether it's worth considering using Python instead for learning programming and then learn Javascript, when you already understand many programming concepts.

I'm not used to teaching, so I would ask ones who are, what pros and cons would teaching Python first have over teaching Javascript right away, for a newcomer to programming?

Explanation / Answer

Given a few days to learn the syntax, a good programmer should be able to code in any language.

Putting aside my personal preference for Python, there are a few key factors that will influence your friends first language.

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