# The way I think of it, trying to learn computer science without learning C
is like being a medieval…

* * *

The way I think of it, trying to learn computer science without learning C is
like being a medieval scholar trying to learn medicine without first learning
Latin: whether or not you *like* it doesn’t matter, because it’s simply the
language everything has been written in since the 70s; while you can get by
without learning any one specific minor language (read: pretty much everything
but C is a minor language), no matter what language you prefer to write in you
will need to be able to read C.

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [October 11,
2016](https://medium.com/p/da597a925b8b).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/the-way-i-think-of-it-trying-to-
learn-computer-science-without-learning-c-is-like-being-a-medieval-
da597a925b8b)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.