How many did basic > compiled basic > turbo pascal + asm > C > C++ > perl/python > ...

My path was (C64) Basic -> Quick Basic -> (Borland) C++ -> (x86) asm -> Java -> Python. Mostly.

There's some Ruby, plain C, Lisp, Haskell, C# in there, and lately Ocaml and Rust. And lots of shell scripting in between. Never needed Pascal, and I stay away from Perl. Clojure is still on my wishlist, as is Scala (because of Spark, mostly).

I did Z80 ASM before C and C++, then later settled on C# as the go-to language of choice.

I think almost all of us started with BASIC. Then we all wanted to do more... and with more memory and do it faster... so I needed a compiled language.

So, I learned C, then Pascal, then VisualBasic. C forever corrupted me.

Then C++ was the future, so I learned that... and then the web came... and with it came CGI scripting with Perl. I really fell in love with Python, though. It was what BASIC should have been, but Python was slow, so I learned Go. Along the way I also learned Prolog, Lisp, Java, Javascript, Rexx and a host of different OS scripting languages. Now, I just look at a problem, and pick something that fits. Mostly. Except when I want to learn something new.

Almost perfectly matches mine, though you can put Logo before Basic. And some weird stuff between C++ / Perl, based on the language du jour in the Computer Science department. Plus Java. Don't forget Java.

Ooh, forgot about Logo too. Definitely. Reminds me of using Apple basic too.

Logo was great. I used it for a short while on a home computer.

Later I read that it was somewhat similar in concepts to Lisp, although with much fewer features than the professional Lisps.

BASIC (GW & Apple) was ubiquitous, but a BASIC compiler was incredibly difficult to find, even illicitly. And 13-year-old me had no hope of purchasing it for $500.

for me it was VB at home, turbo pascal at school, TI-86 basic for "cheating" at school (is it really cheating if you had to learn the math to write the program?). Then HTML+JS for websites, python and C++ for college, PHP for internship, C because I wanted to learn how PHP worked, and then onwards into real life.

(Actually it was back to the beginning as my first job was VB6+PL/PGSQL)

Oh, man. I had my TI-85 programmed to the moon. Built my own serial link cable.

Still remember my chemistry teacher let me use a stoichiometry app I coded during exams and welcomed any other students to do the same if they felt it was unfair. There wasn’t an App Store to download it from.

Really taught me the concept of mastering first principles.

No matter how much experience one gets it’s always great to get to be a beginner at something

For real haha. I forgot to include asm and Visual Basic.

VB was looked down on back then but look at low/no code now.

Perl/Python was at the start for me, scripting was a parallel lane to coding.

Highest respect is always held for TCL.