Prelude

Most people do not choose which programming language to learn first — the choice is made for them, by an employer, a teacher, or the provider of the computer system available. Some never get past that first language, because they do not have the opportunity, or because they do not have the need, or because they do not perceive the need. Yet any programmer (or computer user who writes programs but who does not think of himself as a programmer) who raises his head from his coding sheet and looks about him, cannot fail to be aware that there are very many other languages. Occasionally at least, he must wonder about those languages — whether any of them are worth learning, whether any of them would be better for the program he is writing than the one he is using.