D vs Java as a first programming language

[bearophile]

Alan Knowles:
> Not sure why you dont give them a overview lecture on a number of 
> languages, C, D, Java, Python, PHP, Javascript.
> Then send them off to produce a simple program - hello world + count to 
> 10 etc. in as many of the langauges as possible. - Then get feedback 
> from the students on what they would prefer to learn about.... - Student 
> focused teaching tends to work better...

I have done that (but not with so many languages) to students of molecular biology, and the answer was: Python! ;-)

Bye,
bearophile