Best Programing Language

[yumrum]

So i've programed in Turing and Java...
I want to learn a new programing language... And i was curious as to what new programing language i should learn.


Would just like some opinions

[Insectoid]

There is no 'best' language. Ruby and Python are easy to learn and generally well-liked, Perl is a bit old but a lot of fun. Flash is okay for coding in but has garbage efficiency. You could also branch out into a different paradigm like functional programming.

[chrisbrown]

Scheme

[DtY]

chrisbrown @ Sat May 22, 2010 1:07 am wrote:

Scheme

Anyone learning scheme needs a copy of the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)

[Prabhakar Ragde]

DtY @ Sat May 22, 2010 10:18 am wrote:

chrisbrown @ Sat May 22, 2010 1:07 am wrote:

Scheme

Anyone learning scheme needs a copy of the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)

In my opinion, SICP is not the best way to learn Scheme, unless one has a through grounding in programming and elementary data structures already, or one is in the top 5% in math and reasoning ability. It is a mind-blowing and inspiring book, but lots of people will find it too hard and give up, or skim and miss important things.

HtDP is a bit slower, and some find it "boring". (It is also a bit out of date, and a second edition is in progress; Google "HtDP/2e" to see a draft, which introduces the new animation features.) But it actually teaches design and testing skills, which are really important in the long run. At the time I came across HtDP, it was the best book on introductory programming I had ever seen, and I have not seen anything to take that title away from it.

Another possibility for the experienced programmer is Dybvig's "The Scheme Programming Language":

http://www.scheme.com/tspl4/

It is primarily reference-oriented, but has some textbook aspects to it. It also has a number of interesting case studies in later chapters.

[yumrum]

As much as that Looks interesting i want something that is on Compsci.ca because then i can check out tutorials submissions and get help

I'm Trying to decide Between Python, Ruby, or C++ now
They all look pretty good to me/

[USEC_OFFICER]

Flip a coin. or better yet, create the same program in each language, to see which one you like best.

[copthesaint]

VJass, you learn C++ and make some wicked stuff in War 3 Lol, thats just a jk btw, dont learn it like that.

[chrisbrown]

yumrum @ Fri May 21, 2010 9:00 pm wrote:

So i've programed in Turing and Java...
I want to learn a new programing language... And i was curious as to what new programing language i should learn.

Have you really learned Java? If not, go do so.

If you have, C++ would be a valuable asset and the transition from Java is not a difficult one.

It is, however, less interesting than and more tedious than your other prospects.

[Kharybdis]

C++ is pretty useful if you want to seriously get into programming. Otherwise, Ruby's a lot fun and it's simple.

[Bored]

USEC_OFFICER @ Sat May 22, 2010 8:46 pm wrote:

Flip a coin. or better yet, create the same program in each language, to see which one you like best.

Take this advice, it's really the best anyone can give you on the subject. Really more important then learning new languages is new concepts. One interesting jump could be into web programming as well if your not experienced in that area. It's extremely useful and experience in the area will open a LOT of job opportunities later.

[Unnamed.t]

This is a pretty interesting topic you've started up. Looks like you've come out of the usual high school programming track. Now because you already know Java, C++ won't really be the best new language to learn. C++ is overall a VERY good language (considering so many other languages are written in C and C++) and because C++ has a full compilation, it's runtime capabilities are by far the best.

Java and C++ are good for making those nice and powerful programs like driver softwares. A lot of people do use Java/C++ in competitions but they don't give you that coding speed that other languages offer.

Ruby and Python on the other hand can code small programs in about 1/3 lines than Java/C++. For example, you can code a function for the Fibonacci sequence inside Python with only 4 lines flat. The same thing might take 12 lines in Java and C++.

Turing just sux lol. It has limits to it thats all Im going to say. Nonetheless you already know it so thats not a problem.

Now out of Java and C++ I recommend C++ for a number of reasons. C++ may not open as much job oppurtunities that Java could but in the end (for a number of reasons) I find C++ more flexible and has a wider range of (cant think of the word). You really don't need to learn C++ cuz Java can do so many of the same things, but instead learn one of the following two languages.

And out of Ruby and Python, I would consider that you use Python. They are both extremely powerful and fast languages, but I think in the long-term python holds a lot more success in it. It is also much easier to learn the basics Python when you already know Java. And there is something called Jython (mix of Java and Python) which you may find interesting.

Even though Perl is considered to be SUPER POWERFUL, I really wouldn't be too eager to learn it. Perl is something like say you can program a Sudoku generator in Python by using 2 or 3 tracks. If you use perl you could probably make a sudoku generator in about 10 different ways! Now this may sound appealing, but having everything isn't necessarily a good thing. Programming about 100 lines of code in perl can kinda bother you but when that gets to 1000 lines it will get really annoying.


I can't really give you a full insight I guess you should look into it a bit by yourself. In conclusion my answer is straight: Learn Python.

[BigBear]

Bored @ Sun May 30, 2010 3:52 pm wrote:

USEC_OFFICER @ Sat May 22, 2010 8:46 pm wrote:

Flip a coin. or better yet, create the same program in each language, to see which one you like best.

Take this advice, it's really the best anyone can give you on the subject. Really more important then learning new languages is new concepts. One interesting jump could be into web programming as well if your not experienced in that area. It's extremely useful and experience in the area will open a LOT of job opportunities later.

what would be the language to learn to do web programming

[Bored]

Well first off you'd NEED to learn HTML to start as it's the base of all pages. It's really simply to pick up the basics of and is basically just a bunch of tags that tell browsers how to format text. From there I'd suggest picking up javascript as it's a very powerful little scripting language and is client side so it requires no server, just write a html page with some scripts and open it in your browser. The basics of both of these are very easily picked up. From there you can begin to jump into the much more powerful serverside end which powers web 2.0 as we know it today. Personally I'd suggest you start out with PHP on that end, then jump into SQL (the specific flavor is your choice), but ASP.net and Ruby on Rails are both great alternatives. You can also look into using Java for web apps but I'm personally not a huge fan. So ya, make sure you understand HTML and JS (if you don't already), then from there do some research and experiment.

[Insectoid]

HTML? PHP? Java/flash for applets (Java caters to efficiency (comparatively) while flash is focused on the programmer at the cost of...well, it's quite possibly the only thing on earth worse than turing).