Do you mind if I ask why you want to learn Arc specifically? In my opinion there are better languages one can learn from the get-go, and in terms of usefulness.
Better by what measure? If you accept succinctness is power, Arc is the most powerful language there is. Python's goal seems to contradict wanting to be powerful. http://paulgraham.com/power.html
And if what you are writing is web apps, you don't know how useful Arc is unless you used it.
Any language looks extremely powerful when you first start to program because programming itself does. You don't have a baseline of comparison at that point. So it's easy to be tricked into using a less powerful language when you are inexperienced.
What's surprising in this thread is inexperience in programming didn't sway jack into picking a less powerful language. It even caused him to feel guilty about this advantage: "secondarily (very minor)". That's impressive already. He's already ahead of those who don't hack in Arc and stay mislead they shouldn't.
Sure, I could pick any language and learn it as a first time programmer (essentially). I could learn Haskell as a first time developer too. But should I? Comparing Arc to Python is not only a comparison of syntax and coding style, which by any means is a minute detail in this case seeing as they are both easy to grasp and relatively succinct, but a comparison of resources and community as well. Python for example is the language of choice at many schools and universities for first time programmers. The community is much larger and more developed. There are many more resources for python that I can find and know of than for Arc.
Arc might be a powerful language, but I find little reason to choose it over Python, Java, JavaScript, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be of the opinion that Arc is more "powerful" (by the standards PG laid out in the linked essay). Would you further suggest that it is more productive? If so, what exactly about Arc gives it that advantage, specifically over a language with such a rich ecosystem?
Arc will be tricky to get a hang of learning to code (essentially) for the first time, I would recommend a language like Python. The syntax makes a lot of sense, it starts out easy to learn, but is extremely powerful.
No problem - I think you will really be able to do anything you like, 3 years or not. If you are really set on learning Arc I know you will do fine. Since you aren't looking for a job or anything, and I guess just want to learn in you spare time, Arc should be completely O.K to learn.
