<p>I'm going to be a college freshman in this coming Fall and pursuing Mechanical Engineering. At my college, they teach students Matlab first (Second semester of freshman year).</p>
<p>I'm planning to teach myself one of these in the summer. So, which one should I learn first?</p>
<p>Is it a good idea to teach myself C++ first (before college), so at the end of my freshman year, I would have known 2 languages so that will make my resume more impressive and competitive for a co-op or internship position?</p>
<p>In general I think it is good for youngsters to learn a programming language. So yes, get familiar with C++ and if you have the time get familiar with MATLAB. Yes it will hep you with college classes, but when we live in a world which exponentially becoming a programming world we need programming literate people. So go ahead and get familiar with C++ it will help you not just for college but for life.</p>
<p>You need Matlab as an ME for sure. Youll barely use C++. So, learn Matlab, its really easy. Then take C++ your first te in college. This way you can tell companies you know matlab and are learning C++. This shows huge initiative btw. Good Luck.</p>
<p>C++ is a lot more functional, and I’m a huge fan of it myself. Realistically, you’ll probably use MATLAB for most things, but you would benefit more from teaching yourself C++.</p>
<p>Learn a REAL programming language first ( C++ ). Then you will find Matlab easy even though ME people do not really use C++, but now everything is becoming software, so you need programming experience anyway.
I learnt JAVA first, and then I learnt Matlab in 3 hours…</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree with everybody else and say MATLAB. An ME doesn’t need C++ unless he’s making end user type of software.</p>
<p>Learning C++ is pointless unless you’re going to take the time to be really proficient in it, making you own data structures, using the STL, and so forth.</p>
<p>C++ is easy to learn, the logic of it transfers to many other languages easily. I took a C++ class, then having never touched MATLAB before, wrote an entire program/GUI that the math department now uses for the semester project. Also, I just wrote a couple programs for my internship in VBA that has saved them like 6 man-hours per simulation by automating all the manual data analysis.</p>
<p>That’s nothing special about C++, specifically. If you can learn to program in one language, picking up another language is generally just a matter of syntax. Core concepts remain mostly the same.</p>
<p>The caveat here is that you shouldn’t think mastery of one language gives you mastery over others. Each language has its own style and best practices, and sometimes entirely new paradigms are thrown in (e.g. object-oriented vs functional, different typing). You definitely don’t want to code in Python like a Java programmer.</p>
<p>In response to OP: there’s no point learning MATLAB right now; it’s pretty easy to pick up, and you’ll be forced to learn it in school, anyways. C++ is a fine choice to get started with. However, learning a programming language usually goes better if you have a goal in mind, so pick something you want to build and make sure the programming language you’re using is suited for that purpose (e.g. C++ is a terrible choice if you want to make a web application).</p>