Can you code? If yes, what programming language do you use?

Question

I was doing some research about what programming language to learn and i ended up reading some interesting articles (links down below), so what do you think?
I am looking to learn something nice and a language that is and will be in demand also something that you can do a lot things with...A lot people seems to say Python. What do you say?

www,jobstractor.com/trends/January-2013
www.sitepoint.com/best-programming-language-of-2013/

Answer 1

Alright. I code in C++, Java, C#, Visual Basic, Python, JavaScript and probably some more i forgot about. Always on the quest of a better language. I can tell you a couple of good things to think about.



The web isn't going anywhere. The lingua de facto for programming the web is JavaScript. Until they find out some solution to the whole binary code with low level access in a sandbox issue (which may NEVER get solved with internet level permission scope) it may be THE web language for quite a while to come. Plus it runs in any browser. Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera and Mozilla Firefox all have developer tools built in and i know MS IE has them since IE9. Just press F12 on Windows (Linux?) and Ctrl+Opt I on Mac. This means you can run and debug code immediately. No need to link and/or compile. You can even fiddle around with something like jsfiddle.com or jsbin.com



Definitely check out codeacademy or even John Resig's javascript tutorials. that guy invented jQuery, and he has a good approach to learning the language. Lotsa resources that have only gotten better over the past 8 years or so.



Also with the advent of things like NodeJS, you can have a server running javascript code. Tools like phonegap let you build a web app and then transpile it into a native application for phones/tablets like Android, iOS, WP7+8, Blackberry etc.



You can learn functional or imperative paradigm in javascript. Object Oriented is a bit different but when you have a general overview of other languages, you see that there are workable solutions in JavaScript with its prototypal objects and direct inheritance.



So... JavaScript. It's been building momentum since like 1995, is getting better every year, there's a lot of development already there with even more in the future, you often get to do frontend web stuff with backend coding things, it's relatively easy to learn, there are plenty of resources about learning it (thank god for youtube compared to learning a language 10+ years ago), it's free and runs everywhere and you can start programming with it RIGHT now.



edit: I also wanna add that i've kept up with the changes they've made to C++ (C++11) and it's quite an awesome language, but i wouldn't seriously recommend it to a beginner learning on their own (though it's quite a bit better than C++98, WOO auto pointers!). for most anything interesting nowadays, you'd need libraries and those are severely lacking . yes performance comes with c++ and "real" programming (CS stuff) is easy, but unless you have a supportive class and a professor, C++ can get a little big and weird to wrap your head around. after you've learned a lesson relatively well though, definitely learn C++ This language isn't going away anytime soon. Most of the power of C with enough abstractions to make it comfortable

Answer 2

You use whatever the job requires. Programming languages are tools. If you were a carpenter you would be expected to be able to use a chisel and a hammer.



Python is a good (probably the best) choice for starting out. Read the introduction to Think Python (free PDF version)....



http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/



and note the subtitle.







Which planet is Michael from...



"If you want to write for Mac and iPhone then you are pretty much limited to Objective-C."



You can use any language you want including C#....



http://xamarin.com/monotouch

Answer 3

Python and JavaScript are good starting languages for beginners.



Take a look at CodeAcademy. It's one of the best resources for learning programming.

Answer 4

It really just depends on the platform you want to learn to write for. If you want to write for Mac and iPhone then you are pretty much limited to Objective-C. If you're writing Windows then C# is your language or Java for cross platform. For web, if you're using Linux then PHP, otherwise use Asp.Net for Windows. If you're writing Mobile for Android then Java is the way to go.



C++ is a great language for low level programming when you care about memory management. However, it is quickly becoming outdated since most modern languages handle memory management automatically.



If you just want to learn something and really don't care about it's purpose then I would suggest something easy like JavaScript since it can run inside of a web browser and doesn't require any complicated setup. Just create a new html file with notepad and begin coding. Save and re-open with your browser to see the code run.

Answer 5

C++