I'm NOT a C/C++ programmer.
I've programmed in C++ once, and even have Watcom C++(v11 or something, lots of diskettes... ) somewhere.
I never really got over the first hill,and really decided that I didn't want to be a full-time programmer after that.
(I work as server admin, netowrk tinkerer, PC fixer and ser support in a large organisation now. And I'm good at it... I did some Visual Basic stuff a while ago, but as I always scrubbed my hands thoroughly afterwards, it doesn't really count )
I have puttered in Basic(on Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Timex Sinclair 2000something in the USA), then went on to try Assembly on the Z80 and 6502, tried Turbo Pascal on both CP/M and DOS even Assembler on 8086. Then the ADA stuff(I kind of liked ADA. Multitasking was a bit awkward, but then again it was in the early 90s. Never tried ADA95, though) I also did an assembler project with a 8052mcu (Timer with 4 relays, 8 independent programs that could overlap, and a countdown timer. )
Then came the C++ bit where I was porting a program someone else had written from some Unix system to Windows 3.0...
After that I didn't do any programming until 95 whenI got myself a Psion S3a PDA. The OPL programming language(reasonably similar to Pascal) makes it EASY to make simple apps with dialog windows and drop-down menus. OPL on the S5 (16MHz ARM chip) supercharged the experience.
I even made a few Shareware programs.
I got intrested in microcontrollers...
Got myself a Parallax BasicStamp II and began hacking together some BASIC programs. And with a BS2p I put together a car locking system using Dallas Semiconductor iButtons.(but got a newer car with central locking before it was finalized) Serial comms and LCD was easy.
I did some decent REXX scripting on OS/2 (DB front-end for one of my collections, but this was later rewritten in OPL since it does proper SQL)
Got hold of an 1986 Psion Organiser II (6301 cpu.) and built an interface with a magnetic sensor nicked from a bike speedo, and combined Assembler and OPL to create a slightly more capable speedo(average speed last minute is nice when dealing with loooooong uphills, and we have many of those here in Norway) Unfortunatel, I didn't use Low Power or CMOS chips, so it drained the 9volt battery in minutes...
I got into the Parallax Propeller when it was introduced, and who wouldn't?
32bit 8core mcu... Only 512 LWord(32bit) memory locations for each core, but it can still do some really awesome stuff.
(One guy designed a game console with VGA graphics, and approximate Super NES performance)
But the SPIN high-level programming language was a bit too OOP for me. And I struggled with handling assembly when you don't have PUSH/POP or even Return...
(They took the rulebook and launched it to outer space when they designed the chip)
They've also opensourced the design of the Propeller.
The P2 is now in rev 33 or something, and is open source. Want to emulate it? download the Verilog files...
(Or try to grab an engineering sample)
If Pascal gets ported to it, I will definitely get hold of a 16cog version...
(People have ported C, Forth and Pascal to the first Propeller, also)
I'm really one of those who can't properly learn a language without having a task I want to accomplish. Just doing exercises tends to bore me too much.
And I've never really had a task that I wanted to solve on a platform that uses C.