No, all compilers/assemblers involve pointers. The languages may or may not. The closest thing to a pointer a person programming in C# will ever see is using the 'ref' keyword when pasing a variable by reference, even though everything in C# is technically a pointer from the compiler/framework's perspective. However, the programmer really needs to no nothing about pointers to program in C# (unfortunately)

And there are certainly more powerful languages than others. Any one who has spent any amount of time programming will tell you OOP is more powerful than procedural programming, and as such C++ is more powerful than C (or pretty much any procedural language)

Indeed, Algorithms and Data structures are the most important thing when developing applications, but when learning a language they are not important what so ever. A merge sort is a merge sort whether it is in ASM, C++, Perl, or writting in psuedo code on a piece of paper. Learning a language and learning algorithms and data structures are completely independant. Someone who doesn't even know how to turn on a computer can be taught how an algorithm or data structure functions...

Please understand what you are talking about before trying to discredit a large swath of people. Thanks.

I'm actually in school right now learing to code (not this minute of course it is sunday but I will be in the morning) and all I can say is just learn a language. Any language will do just learn it thouroughly and then it is SO much easier to learn another language. Once you understand how to code in one language it is just a matter of learning the syntax and limitations of the next language and you are off.

I learned to code in high school using VB.net which kinda came back to bite me in the ass when I got to college and started doing C++, C#, and Java because of the bad habits I picked up with VB.Net (and of course we started with Visual C++ which just reiterated those bad habbits).

Sorry i'm rambling, like I said just pick a language and start learning it. You'll be suprised at how quickly you're making programs if you stick with it.

Statements like this are why many despair the state of of modern computer science education.

"Please understand what you are talking about before trying to discredit a large swath of people. Thanks."

Please take pity on us mere non-uber leet c# mortals.

To OP

Determine your needs over the decision of a language. Since your asking in a gaming forum what language to learn I would assume you would like to do some small PC orientated game.

From here determine where you want to go. If you plan to stay and do small stuff, then go with a easy language like Ruby, Lua, Python. If you plan to take it farther I would suggest Java or C#.

So unless you intend to move into a career of games where your FPS is important. I would suggest not concerning yourself with C/C++. Good languages, but not a requirement for hobbyist.

 You are saying procedural languages are as powerful as OO languages?  They why use OOP at all?  Why were C++/Java/C#/VB even made?  You know this is not the case.  OOP is more powerful than procedural, therefore by neccesity, a OO language is more powerful than a procedural one.

And I have nothing against C# specifically.  I use it 100% of the time at work.  But you won't catch a game developer ever using it, except for tools and utilities.

Define "more powerful"...

OO is more popular because its easier to maintain projects with it. However it has downsides too. It takes extra efford to run OO code so actually procedural programs are faster than OO programs. Also making OO projects is hmm... a bit different and sometimes harder than (nearly linear-like) procedural programs. Its just different kind of paradigm.

(Theres also functional one, which allows you use multicores with ease. But this was OO vs procedural. ^^)

@alephnull

Haha, I totally agree. :D