Are to me somewhat in the same category as first loves. Unforgettable, exciting, nostalgic, something that clouds your perspective for life, as you compare each subsequent to your first and most exciting worlds of discovery. My first programming experience was all in Assembly language and I did it in my head and on paper, as I didn't have the money for anything else. My first crush was all in my head too. My second language was Basic, fooling around on TRS-80's at Radio Shack, and of course the fun excursion into Fortran at the local University where the input method was the trusty old punch deck. I won't elaborate too much on the parallel failed romance, but let's just say I was happy to move on. My favorite first languages were when I learned C and Lisp using the Software Toolwork's products for a Heathkit H-89 I built myself. That was truly an unforgettable experience, and what truly formed me for life. Learning both at once and exploring all of the possibilities was something just magical at 17. Regrettably, there was nothing parallel to that in my love life.
Of course as a result of that, I used C and Lisp at college. Got a job at Microsoft working on QuickBasic when I graduated, and was one of two developers to create QBasic by tweaking QuickBasic 4.0, and crippling it so it was slower and wouldn't compete. I mostly worked on the editor and the UI at that time, and one of the purposes of QBasic was to replace the editor if called with QBasic/Edit (that is what Edit.com did). But inevitably, I still have a bit of a soft spot for QuickBasic and its descendent VB. I know it has flaws, and as a language, it isn't as fun or as powerful as C or Lisp, but it was fun, it was easy, and I was young. And that is a moment of joy and my past I won't let any ideology or philosophy take away from me.
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Of course as a result of that, I used C and Lisp at college. Got a job at Microsoft working on QuickBasic when I graduated, and was one of two developers to create QBasic by tweaking QuickBasic 4.0, and crippling it so it was slower and wouldn't compete. I mostly worked on the editor and the UI at that time, and one of the purposes of QBasic was to replace the editor if called with QBasic /Edit (that is what Edit.com did). But inevitably, I still have a bit of a soft spot for QuickBasic and its descendent VB. I know it has flaws, and as a language, it isn't as fun or as powerful as C or Lisp, but it was fun, it was easy, and I was young. And that is a moment of joy and my past I won't let any ideology or philosophy take away from me.