question about my approach to programming

[mxood]

ok i am very sorry if this comes off as irritating to some, but i need someone to reassure or direct me.
i have learned some programming, very very basic to be exact and i have learned some c# and some C++.
the problem is, I like c# because it is more productive right off the bat( i love c++ too.) because of vs WPF integration in .NET, but many articles on especially stackOverFlow talk about not learning properly or as good because c++ teaches all the pointers and memory control etc and youll end up a better programmer and whatnot. so if i learn c# will i miss out on somethings, because so far im learning c++ just to learn it and then move on to c# and java. but i feel like just maybe if someone can tell me that c++ is not essential then i can skip to c# and java afterwards, whichll probably save sometime for i am only learning on my freetime.

[ddanbe]

My idea:If you want to be productive I would go for C#.But in the end to be a good c# programmer you also have to know what a pointer is or to grasp the concept of boxing and unboxing. C++(I love C++ too) lets you come in contact with those concepts right away. You can also program with pointers in C# but you have to mark the code with the keyword "unsafe".

[rubberman]

I generally agree with ddanbe, and if Windows systems are the ONLY systems you will be programming for, then C# is perfectly fine. However, if you want to expand your horizons, then C/C++, Java, Python, et al are also good to learn.