HELP! Must choose language!

[andy]

I've used LOADS of languages in my time...

I started with BASIC, which at that time screwed my head up... I was 13 at the 
time.  I hated it, in fact, it nearly put me off computers completely.  But 
that was 22 years ago... (ouch - makes me feel REALLY old!)

"Languages" I've played with (seriously or otherwise)...

Assembly code(various), BASIC(loads), C, COBOL, dBase, FORTH, Linux/Unix shell 
scripting, Logo, Modula-2, MS-DOS Batch-script, Oberon, Pascal, PL/1

For me Python has been the fastest to learn and get productive with.  I'm 
teaching my 7-year old daughter to use the 'turtle' module for simple 
graphics, as an intro...  she's picking it up fine, too.

For purity, IMHO you can't beat Oberon (check google).  Being a purist's 
language, it's got a bit of a steep learning curve, even from its forebears 
(i.e. Pascal or Modula).

The worst languages, IMHO are the C variants, as they seem to make an art out 
of translating bit-rot into executable code (Purely *MY* opinion).  I feel 
they teach you bad habits and that what you really learn is how to look 
clever, not BE clever.

You can do loads of really cool stuff in Python, and still read (and 
understand) it after 2 months or more, too!

So far, no task I've attempted with Python has lead me down a blind alley.  
It's my current favourite (not likely to change for a quite while either)...


-andyj