I heard if you can code in C, you can code in any language (not literally but...). Is this true?

Question

As C is a foundation of all programming languages creating stuff like the Python interpreter and oracle, it must be easy to code in other languages if you can get a general jist of C, as you have to do everything yourself in C, so does tht mean it is generally true if you can code in C, your very likely to program in others too?

Answer 1

I think yes, it's true. I started learning C and it gave me all the basic programming knowledge. After that, it was very easy to me learning the other languages.
Once you know C, you should learn C++, that will teach you the object oriented programming (OOP). Then you may learn any other high-level language without trouble. Almost all the programming languages share the same concepts and structures, you just have to learn how they implement them.

Answer 2

I would says yes and no. Learning in depth C will teach you many things (manual memory management, difference between heap and stack, structure optimization). All of those things are low level concepts that are mostly needed when speed is needed or when working on embedded systems.

Newer programming languages like Python or C# or Java are used most of the time in context that does not require the to be as fast as the system can be nor embedded. Because of that they drop many of the things that make C C: manual memory management, direct manipulation of memory addresses, .... Instead they will introduce concepts that would not fit C goals but make high level development.

Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is a perfect example of that, OOP makes a lot of sense for developing Graphical applications. However, for a C programmer this concept can be difficult to grasp completely. I'm sure they will be able to learn since they learnt the base of all the programming languages it but it won't be instantaneous nor always easy.

In conclusion, C programmer can code in any language like any programmer from any other programmer can code in any other languages. It may a bit easier from C since it forces the programmer to learn a lot before being code. But even this is debatable since a lots of the key concept in C are not needed in higher level languages

Answer 3

i think ,i it quit different as per your thinking.
their are new concept you have to learn in data structure and oop's but the basic of c programming should strong . it is very useful in other language , it mean that you can code in any language.but need to learn to make your code in efficent logic and also take
care about time which require to run the code

Answer 4

I can’t attest to this yet (I’m still learning C), but a friend of mine who has been coding professional for quite some time says that if you can read C, you can read most any language. If I understand what I’ve read correctly, other languages usually are compiled to C and therefore are similar

Answer 5

At my university, all first year subjects use C for this reason.

Answer 6

I agree but C has no OO concepts which can be a learning curve for someone branching out of C.

Answer 7

yes c helps in building logic and basic knowledge about coding. most of the code in python can be related with c.

Answer 8

Having one language as deeply can open way to learn another one.