Question:
Which computer language is for what?
Hershpod
2010-08-06 18:47:40 UTC
I want to know which programming language is best for what.
What is python best for?
What is C++ best for?
What is C# best for?
html?
css?
PascaL?
Java?
What other programming languages are there?
Thanks
Four answers:
lyes hassaine
2010-08-06 18:56:15 UTC
Python and Pascal are pretty basic languages and are good choices to learn how to program with.



C++ is widely used in commercial desktop applications such as video games.



Html and css are used for websites, HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language. CSS - Cascading Style Sheets.



Java is used for a variety of applications, ranging from 3D online games to scientific simulations. It is a great language to learn programming in.



If you are interested in computer languages, and programming, I'd advise starting with a simple Java tutorial such as this one:



http://www.leolol.com/tutorials/java/java_hello_world_eclipse.html



I hope this helps!
Chris M
2010-08-06 19:04:56 UTC
There's far too many languages to list... but as far as best, that's only a tiny bit less complicated.



In what you've listed there are actually 3 different kinds, and they do vary further from there.



C++, C#, Pascal are both regular programming languages, they create a normal executable file. Another programming language of that sort would be Basic (or rather, the many variations of Basic such as Visual Basic or Real Basic). The primary differences in these is the style or simplicity of the code and (often vs) the speed. An example is that you could write the same program in C++ and Basic, but Basic would often be a much simpler code... at the expense of being much much slower to run.



HTML, CSS are not really programming languages, rather they are a document language and a style sheet. These are just used to to take normal text and add formatting to it. They lack all the functionality that makes an actual programming language.



Java on the other hand is a different beast altogether. It requires other software to run it's compiled code but has advantages unique to it's platform (such as compatibility across multiple operating systems). Another example would be Flash. These have to be taken individually as, unlike normal programming languages, they have much more clearly defined limitations. They can only do what their associated software is programmed to let them do (an example of which might be the fact that until recently Flash did not allow hardware accelerated video).



When looking into programming languages, it all depends on what you want to do. If you just want to get into programming as a hobby, find one that feels comfortable to use then move on from there. It's not too hard to learn a new programming language after the first one.



If you're wanting to get into professional programming, then the best advice I can get is to research the industry you want to get into and figure out which language is most commonly used by the companies. (for example, PC and console gaming often use C++)
Shadow Wolf
2010-08-06 20:50:35 UTC
There is no programming language that is best for anything. However you might want to look into the design details of a given programming language and see what the intended uses for it were.



Python is an interpreted language. Some of it's features are it allows faster development time, it tends to run slower, and it is somewhat less complicated than some programming languages. You can find it in use behind the scenes in Linux and I know of some serious programs written with Python.



C++ is a full blown object oriented programming language that is a super-set of C or some may prefer to say it is backwards compatible. With attention to detail and careful programming, C++ is probably the fastest of the languages you listed. It can be used for just about anything from operating systems to high speed action games. Since it is compiled code, it is nearly as fast as hand written assembly.



C# has been described as C++ with everything that can hurt the operating system taken out. This is a Microsoft only programming language so for the near future at least, you'll only find this one on a Windows platform. Since it is part of the C/C++ family it is compiled code and it can be as fast as C or C++ if some care is taken.



HTML is a markup language. It is not a programming language. Much like some of the older word processor programs, all this does is tell the interpreting program how to display text. If you dig into the newer word processor programs, you'll find that similar code is embedded and hidden by the program.



Pascal was designed to be a teaching programming language. It is very similar to BASIC in that it is easy to learn and uses a similar easy to follow syntax. Pascal was developed as both an interpreted and a compiled language so you can get varied results for speed. A modern variant of Pascal is called Delphi. Compiled programs can nearly compete with C for speed.



Java was designed to be a portable or universal programming language. It is a hybrid between being interpreted and compiled so it has intermediate speed. As an object oriented language, it is very similar to C++ syntax, but it is different enough to cause problems for C++ programmers. What makes Java portable is the Java Virtual Machine or JVM. Once a Java program is compiled to it's intermediate code, it may be run on any computer with a compatible Java interpreter. What it loses in speed it gains in portability. This was meant to be a compile once run on everything language. Something that most other programming languages haven't equaled.



Other programming languages? How far back do you want to go?



Here is just the general progression of BASIC for Microsoft and the PC. I add this one because it was meant for teaching programming but it quickly became a popular hobby language and was available on most personal computers in some form.

BASICA, GW-BASIC, Quick BASIC, Visual Basic, and VB.net



I can add from personal experience, TI-99 BASIC, TRS-80 BASIC, C64 BASIC or CBM BASIC, UBASIC and a few more in addition to all the Microsoft variants.



This is the brief progression for the C family. All of them have unique differences.

A, B, K&R C, standardized C, objective C, C++, C#



Pascal and Delphi have a few variants. It is enough to cause some problems if you have to jump between versions on different systems.



Java was not immune to changes and it has had numerous revisions.



Fortran is an old language that has gone through several revisions and standardization.



There is the Mix programming language developed by Knuth for use in his algorithms books. While it isn't technically a programming language, it was intended to represent a cross section of microprocessors and is sort of a version of assembly language. Oddly enough, given that Mix is artificial, there are compilers available for it.



You can find programming languages with names from A to Z. Which one is best for a given project comes from experience or perhaps the one that you know. Some programming languages were simply seeds from which much better programming languages grew.



As far as learning programming, it doesn't matter what programming language you learn. Once you learn programming, you can use any programming language you care to learn. There is a difference. I happened to learn programming with TRS-80 BASIC which is very similar to BASIC A and GW-BASIC. Probably all developed by Microsoft. I've written programs using nearly every programming language and variant listed above. I actually learned programming and it is nearly trivial to jump into another programming language or variant. That is all you really need to do. Learn Programming.



Shadow Wolf
2010-08-06 18:52:58 UTC
What is python best for? quick and relative easy coding

What is C++ best for? performance.

What is C# best for? even more performance.

html? websites.

css? counter strike:source isn't a coding language

PascaL? below average on all.

Java? all platform combability. very, very bad performance.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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