Stumbled across Genie

Many people have asked me what programming language they should learn.  That's a complicated question without a simple answer.  In short, I ask them to describe their dream job and then tell them they need to learn a scripting language and another formal programming language.  For scripting, I generally tell them to learn JavaScript (since it's the #1 language on GitHub) unless they plan to work as a systems administrator, in which case I recommend Bash scripting.  For a programming language, it depends on their target job.  Academia leans toward Python, many open source projects and embedded systems use C, enterprise typically use Java or C#, and for mobile Android uses Java and iOS uses Objective C.  Once they have a handle on a scripting and programming language, I recommend they learn SQL to round out the basics.

All that advice generally works well except for C.  Let's face it, it's a tough language (especially for new students).  It requires a lot more effort than higher-level languages that handle some of the more mundane tasks for you.  However, that control gives you maximum flexibility and generally much better performance.

When programmers typically want the benefits of an end result without having to deal with the native language itself they often use a transpiler.  Due to the demand for C, there are many transpilers for it.  While researching Elementary OS, I came across Vala which impressed me with it's intuitive design.  That research led me to Genie which simplifies the Vala syntax even further and provides a very readable result.  So, if you're in the market to learn C but want an easier pre-transpiler language to work with, check out Genie!