<p>“but I have to say that Python is a sweet language and very easy to learn.”
- I’d disagree that it’s sweet. Why do you say it is?</p>
<p>“Or you can be extra cool and start with Scheme to get more recursion and parentheses than you’ll ever want.”
- I actually think Scheme isn’t a bad language to start with. I wouldn’t recommend it, but you could do worse (see: python, matlab, assembly, etc).</p>
<p>Here’s what I would actually recommend before you do any programming… is to be able to write pseudocode to solve a problem, and convince yourself the pseudocode works, without using the “monkey and a debugger”* approach. Once you can solve problems, all you have to learn is syntax.</p>
<ul>
<li>A monkey at a keyboard with a C debugger will eventually write every correct C program.</li>
</ul>