At many places, first programming course is Python or JavaScript. Our university first teaches C. I feel its a great language to build up programming skills. Tough then formers and that's what makes it more beneficial.

Our university teaches us C first too, then Java, R/Python and after that you are pretty much left to your own devices.

Ours teaches C first for a complete year, then we work with C++ for a year too and then, we choose the languages we want to work with. And the way we learn C (with basic Linux programs), we understand very well how computer sciences work

I always thought Scheme would be the go-to introductory language.
At least it is the most mentioned one.

I thought most started with c. Both of mine did.

My college started you off with Java and then switched to C later in the program.

C is a great language to start with.
Trial-by-fire. Those who make it through will have a great understanding of how computers and code actually work. And they'll know what all the other languages do for them (memory management, data structures, typecasting, etc.)

I've come around to the idea that C is a great beginner-language for many reasons, but (at least in Norway) there is a lot of fails in programming (Java and Python are typically used), so the actual output of higher educated IT-personell is a lot lower than it should be. The question is then, would C be a good idea?

@theuser Do you want more graduates, or more decent programmers? Figure that out first and you'll have your answer.

@Ashkin The industry wants more graduates I presume.

@theuser yes yes, let's lower our standards so more students meet them!

😧