The role of programming paradigms in the first programming courses

Abstract

The choice of the first programming language and the corresponding programming paradigm is critical for later development of a programmer. Despite the huge number of programming languages introduced over the last fifty years, the key issues in programming education remain the same and choosing appropriate first programming language is still challenging. In this paper we overview some of the most important issues relevant for programming education, especially for introductory courses, and we discuss the problem of choosing the first programming language. Some statistical data about first programming language are presented.