this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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Programming

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Hello,

I am thinking about teaching my students JavaScript first so that they can start creating websites and make their career, what are your thoughts?

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[–] greenashura@sh.itjust.works 15 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Why not python? C needs constant memory management and JavaScript is too chaotic. Both seem to me a bit too complicated for someone just starting

[–] ghodawalaaman@programming.dev 1 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

The main reason to not including python is that students aren't particularly in the CS field, they are learning it as their "augmented skill" (I don't know what it's called bad English). That's why I don't want to force them to learn CS concept which they might not even need.

I was thinking about C so that their fundamentals gets cleared but I think it will be too much for students who aren't into CS. What do you think ?

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Idk why you are discarding python for the reason that makes python the best option. If there is a programming language that a non-programmer should know, it's python.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 7 points 10 hours ago

Python allows you to focus on a single concept in isolation (building on what you've already learned, of course). JS has a bunch of other stuff mixed in. Like the DOM. Interacting with the DOM is necessary for any browser code. You can hide it with abstractions and boilerplate, but it's always going to surface in error messages. Debugging JS can be quite a bit harder than other languages.

Caveat: beginner JS is many years behind me. It may not be as bad as corporate code full of react and angular and all kinds of requirements.

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 26 points 14 hours ago

If they're not in the CS field, and you don't want to teach them CS concepts that they don't need, then you have eliminated C as an option by your own criteria.

With C, they'll have to learn about compilers, build systems, memory management, and pointers at the very least.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

The main reason to not including python is that students aren’t particularly in the CS field, they are learning it as their “augmented skill” (I don’t know what it’s called bad English). That’s why I don’t want to force them to learn CS concept which they might not even need.

That's an even better reason to pick Python, then.