I'm not certain I'd pick C first, but I'd definitely have a person learn C before C++ and Java.

I agree with the author that learning Java first is a mistake. Yes, it's nice that the student doesn't need to worry about pointers (oh, no!), but teaching OO first is a mistake - a very bad one. Java is also horrid in its verbosity and sprawling library.

While OO is conceptually easy, actually implementing it isn't, at least in Java and C++. Further, since it hides logic, hidden effects can occur. This is impossible in C. WYSIWYG.

I've heard people argue that python may be a good starter language.