r/learnprogramming • u/Suspicious-Fix-295 • 1d ago

When languages "just become about syntax"

I have seen a lot of post saying "once I learned C - all other languages just became about syntax"

Has that been true for you? Or did a different language give you the eureka moment - e.g. something like Assembly?

Or is it just a false premise at all to think "once I learn programming language X - then all other languages become **easy**"

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u/fasta_guy88 22h ago

There is a large set of procedural languages that are enough like 'C' that its mostly about syntax. But there are languages with very different computational models where it is about semantics, not syntax. In any case, a proficient 'C' programmer (one who is comfortable with pointers and memory references) is unlikely to have a "eureka" moment going to assembly, because assembly is so much simpler (and less syntactically powerful) than 'C'. Lisp, Python, 'R' might generate 'eureka', but not assembly.