Some say you must start with a simple programming language and learn your way up. Others tell you to learn a low level language such as C to understand how everything works.
I've seen plenty of developers who started with Python or JS, and some who started with C. Comparing them, there is no doubt about which method yields the best developers.
The good news is that it's never too late to go back to the fundamentals.
@galdor Another approach illustrated by great books like Djikstra's "A Method of Programming" or Gries's "The Science of Programming" or Morgan's "Programming from Specifications" is to learn programming in the abstract using some semi-informal pseudocode notation. After all, what do you need a real programming language for before you know how to program? (I'm only about 80% kidding —I recognize the value of experimenting on the computer while learning to program— but that 20% is maybe what you'd expect from a mathematician).
@oantolin
> semi-informal pseudocode
There is #TLAplus nowadays, a very intriguing option as a first "design language".
@galdor
Another approach might be to first learn how to write and execute a test plan (maybe the Ruby Cucumber way, or with a #PropertyBasedTesting tool).
