What programming language should EE's learn first?

MatLab. Most versatile since it allows for complex analysis, and it's not a far stretch to learn C after.

It's a tricky question and actually not seriously answerable. "What programming language should EE's (sic) learn first" (for those who don't recognise it (sic) means that I am quoting the OP's incorrect use of apostophe ).

The problem is that you don't know if you are dealing with an EE when you teach someone their first programming language.

So there are several answers:

a first programming langauge (learnt at school by everyone ?):

I'd vote for BASIC - easy to get into, easy to get a result, possible to do great things, easy to grow out of and learn seomething else for real work.

a programming langauge taught at Uni to new intake of EEs:

Today, Python - you can use it to do maths, control servers, manage data bases etc. later on I'd look at C, assembler etc but only for EEs with a software bias.

(BTW, despite being a long term MATLAB user I would BAN it from Uni - that's a bit strong I know but I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with the way Mathworks tries to lure students in with a give away priced student version and special Academic deals but charges outrageous prices when you want to use it at work. The basic MATLAB langauge can't make a TCP connection without an £800 add on. Try Pyzo instead. (Phew... rant over))

I voted for Python as the closest I could get to my answer to my guess at the intent of the question.

MK

It's a tricky question and actually not seriously answerable. "What programming language should EE's (sic) learn first" (for those who don't recognise it (sic) means that I am quoting the OP's incorrect use of apostophe ).

The problem is that you don't know if you are dealing with an EE when you teach someone their first programming language.

So there are several answers:

a first programming langauge (learnt at school by everyone ?):

I'd vote for BASIC - easy to get into, easy to get a result, possible to do great things, easy to grow out of and learn seomething else for real work.

a programming langauge taught at Uni to new intake of EEs:

Today, Python - you can use it to do maths, control servers, manage data bases etc. later on I'd look at C, assembler etc but only for EEs with a software bias.

(BTW, despite being a long term MATLAB user I would BAN it from Uni - that's a bit strong I know but I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with the way Mathworks tries to lure students in with a give away priced student version and special Academic deals but charges outrageous prices when you want to use it at work. The basic MATLAB langauge can't make a TCP connection without an £800 add on. Try Pyzo instead. (Phew... rant over))

I voted for Python as the closest I could get to my answer to my guess at the intent of the question.

MK