I would start with C, then take it from there. Makes you think about memory management and pointers, and the language doesn't change much. C++ and Rust is a lot easier to process now that I know C, though they don't get prettier. Use ChatGPT for learning - it's good at writing and explaining C.
Starting from C is the worst possible choice. C-like code is the source of errors and security holes, just like actual C.
Instead, start using the most modern language your compiler supports. Everything you write will come much easier, with much less opportunity for mistakes, and be much more fun. You will hardly ever find yourself using pointers, and never allocate or free memory.
His mistake is treating it as a low-level language. C++ can be as low-level as you need it to be, but most of the time, no matter what you are doing, you don't need it to be.
I would be very careful with that approach. C is broken beyond repair, and C++ didn't fix it. The only sane way forward is a clean break with a cleaner syntax (or at least one that is truly context free, dammit), and fewer undefined behaviours. Much fewer.
Instead of going straight to the fix, like GC or RC, try and deal with it manually first. Try working in a language without templates/generics, figure out what that solves. And how does pointers work? You could figure it out in C++ for sure, but try C without all the cruft. It's a simple, lovely language on the surface. Use it to learn and move on to something else if you need to.
Are you assuming I didn't already do that? For your information I've written an entire cryptographic library in C https://monocypher.org and routinely chose C over C++. My claim that C is broken beyond repair doesn't come from ignorance or hype, it comes from over 15 years of first hand experience.
And of course, GC and RC aren't fixes, they can't apply in the performance constrained settings C and C++ typically are used for (tiny embedded chips, video games, video encoding…).
Also there's no way I'll even look at a new language without some form of generics. They're just too damn useful. Sure we could try the Go approach and special case generics for a few core data structures, but I believe a general purpose language needs a way to add custom ones. Heck, even Go fixed its mistakes and added generics after all.
Ah, I see I missed the context of your initial reply. If one's goal is to learn low-level languages, starting from C isn't such a bad choice (though I would still suggest moving away when possible).
But I (mistakenly) thought we were talking about designing a language. And for this I have a point: coming up with something like C in 2023 would be unacceptable. We know better now.
