Never learned Basic. I liked Fortran 77, I hated Pascal, I started doing something useful with C.
My first approach to C++ with Stroustrup's book was shocking, but years after reverting to C, I tried studying C++ on Andrew Koenig's and Barbara Moo's "Accelerated C++" and found it quite easy, already done something with C++ for an exam and passed it with full marks.
For C and C++ you can find lots of suggestions and books reviewed at http://www.accu.org/ (I found there the book I wrote about)







