What is the most relevant programming language to learn?

[yeoo_andy_ni]

Hi,

I know there's a sticky regarding easy programming languages, but at the moment I was wondering what would be the most beneficial language to sit down and learn?

Would the likes of ASP, .NET and Silverlight be good to have as they would appear to be the way Microsoft is pushing their web technologies.

Or would it be better to learn something like C+/++/# (I don't know what ones are even relevant) and PHP, even though it would not be as widely recognised as some of the Microsoft applicaiton and web languages, at least where employment is concerned.

I'd just like to state that I'm not looking for work in the software/development sector, but looking to develop a skill that I could use in my current systems role. Especially as I'm being exposed to a lot of SharePoint and Exchange.

Cheers!

[Dance.]

Lifehacker has a good article on this : http://lifehacker.com/5401954/

[_dandy_]

Microsoft stuff is good to get into but it's really a much narrower choice because you are tied to much more closed platform and set of tools. It's a different mindset so to speak. Don't get me wrong, you'll probably make more money with Microsoft stuff like .NET and C# but once you pick that you are kind of stuck in that direction.

Interesting choice of words. I wouldn't exactly consider MS to be the "narrower choice" when they have a presence in just about every single area of the IT the market.

The narrow choice, IMO, is committing yourself to languages such as PHP and Java, where the only relevance is server technologies. Java on the desktop, for one, is dead. PHP on the desktop simply is not applicable.

Of course my own background makes my comments rather biased--I've done about 13-14 years of C/C++ programming on the Windows platform before moving over to C#--which is relevant on both the client and the server (web or otherwise). I can honestly say I'm not terribly concerned at this point in my career about having to learn, say, things that are only relevant to the Linux platform.

[_bobcat_ Veteran]

Interesting choice of words. I wouldn't exactly consider MS to be the "narrower choice" when they have a presence in just about every single area of the IT the market.

The narrow choice, IMO, is committing yourself to languages such as PHP and Java, where the only relevance is server technologies. Java on the desktop, for one, is dead. PHP on the desktop simply is not applicable.

Of course my own background makes my comments rather biased--I've done about 13-14 years of C/C++ programming on the Windows platform before moving over to C#--which is relevant on both the client and the server (web or otherwise). I can honestly say I'm not terribly concerned at this point in my career about having to learn, say, things that are only relevant to the Linux platform.

I would consider the narrow choice to be 'committing' to any language. For learning you need the basic principles, as stated, then you need to be open to use or learn whatever the situation requires..

The languages that are in vogue seem to change. One thing I've noticed while jobhunting (in the UK) is that many places want someone who can program and use a whole stack of languages and technologies.

[Rudy]

Interesting choice of words. I wouldn't exactly consider MS to be the "narrower choice" when they have a presence in just about every single area of the IT the market.

The narrow choice, IMO, is committing yourself to languages such as PHP and Java, where the only relevance is server technologies. Java on the desktop, for one, is dead. PHP on the desktop simply is not applicable.

Of course my own background makes my comments rather biased--I've done about 13-14 years of C/C++ programming on the Windows platform before moving over to C#--which is relevant on both the client and the server (web or otherwise). I can honestly say I'm not terribly concerned at this point in my career about having to learn, say, things that are only relevant to the Linux platform.

It's a narrow choice because your code will only work on Windows, yes I know about Mono but it's not widely used enough yet

[sanctified Veteran]

COBOL & FORTRAN

[_dandy_]

It's a narrow choice because your code will only work on Windows, yes I know about Mono but it's not widely used enough yet

Well...if I had to commit to one platform one way or another, then given their respective market shares, I'd rather be writing code that only works on Windows than code that only works on Linux or the Mac. That's how your "narrow choice" came to me as a little..."backwards". :-)

[markwolfe Veteran]

Well...if I had to commit to one platform one way or another, then given their respective market shares, I'd rather be writing code that only works on Windows than code that only works on Linux or the Mac. That's how your "narrow choice" came to me as a little..."backwards". :-)

Choosing a language that is not cross-platform is limiting, even if you pick Microsoft as the platform.

[ajua]

You can learn Visual Basic .NET and then move to C# which is not that different and can do other things as well.

Consider C/C++ as well.

If you plan to make a living on programming, learn at least two or three languages. I would recommend at least C++ and VB.NET.

[micro]

Java, and C, from there you can pretty much learn any language.

[Xilo]

Choosing a language that is not cross-platform is limiting, even if you pick Microsoft as the platform.

Kinda funny. Generally only huge Linux advocates spout this everywhere along with insisting on stuff being cross-platform. Yeah, it's good to be diverse, but in general, you will be programming for Windows. Windows is the biggest market leader. Unless you are dead set in what you want to do for work, you generally will program for Windows.

You either go with where the market is going and get hired in GENERIC_IT_SHOP_03, pick a language and become damn good at it and market yourself with that, or be a well-rounded and diverse person.

C, C++ are good to know and there's a lot of invaluable information and concepts you can only grasp by learning these languages but the average programming Joe won't be using them. They'll most likely be using .NET or Java which are good to learn at any rate. Well, at least Java is cross-platform.

The thing is, you will never know what kind of ball will be thrown your way. Like I said before, I loved C++ and C# and hated Perl. The job I'm working at? I'm using mostly Perl and Shell and do some C work as well. I work on a server-class OS. IDE's with fancy debuggers, refactoring tools, and etc? Bah. Vim and command line debugger is all we've got. It's definitely not for everyone.

You are right though. To be a good programmer, your skills should be well-rounded and understand the concepts of programming and design. The language honestly doesn't matter that much but it's good to do well in a couple languages.

That's my $0.02 anyways.

Edited November 17, 2009 by Xilo

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ Look, I agree that a foundation in C/C++ is good. Nice cross-platform technologies can deploy anywhere.

And one would be foolish to limit one's thinking to "desktop" when there is a world of server technologies out there. And, here's the rub. Those aren't 95% Windows.

I stand by my statement that cross-platform languages are less limiting, as they can deploy anywhere. Not sure how you think this is false, or needs to be "refuted" in some way. More power to you, in any case.

[Xilo]

I'm not refuting. They are definitely good to know. Many people though, get into programming as a hobby or find out it's just not for them. The amount of people that dwindle out of the CS and CSE degrees in college is pretty high.

Also, most people will not be doing server programming or intense serious programming ala where performance is critical or the environment simply doesn't support any of the newer platform specific languages. Average Joe will most likely go into web-development doing AJAX with PHP, Ruby, or ASP.NET or go into a Windows shop.

I think my definition of cross-platform might be different. To me, it's pretty much really only C/C++ because those are available to every platform and piece of hardware.

Are you also talking about scripting (Python, Perl, Ruby) and Java? Though, these (except Java) aren't too too mainstream. They are used but not as much as C/C++/.NET and well Java.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Well, certainly the thread starter inquired specifically about use in a server environment as one of his/her key areas of interest. And languages such as ASP.Net, PHP, python and others (which you called "scripted") could also be of great benefit. Programs don't have to be compiled, and a good foundation of programming languages should include these as well.

[Andre S. Veteran]

It's a narrow choice because your code will only work on Windows, yes I know about Mono but it's not widely used enough yet

Mono is quite mature. Ubuntu ships with two C# applications, FSpot and TomBoy. (The Banshee music player was proposed as the standard music player, did that make it in Ubuntu 9.10?) There's a huge game development IDE costing thousands to license built entirely in C#, using Mono as the .NET implementation to allow OSX/Windows portability, called Unity. I think in particular the ASP.NET libraries are excellent. The MonoDevelop IDE is still a bit rough around the edges compared to, say, Netbeans, but it's growing nicely.

If I had to develop for Linux or OSX I would definitely count C# among the likely candidates.

[_dandy_]

I would consider the narrow choice to be 'committing' to any language. For learning you need the basic principles, as stated, then you need to be open to use or learn whatever the situation requires..

The languages that are in vogue seem to change. One thing I've noticed while jobhunting (in the UK) is that many places want someone who can program and use a whole stack of languages and technologies.

Of course I said if I had to commit to any language, which one shouldn't be doing. I was just voicing what would be my own preference right now. But ultimately, I'm not married to the language, I go where the money is, and if market forces dictate that something else is more relevant, that's probably what I'd go for.

But again, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change much of the path I've already been through--learn C/C++ for the fundamentals (OTOH it depends on how far you're willing to get to know them), then move onto something else for real-world productivity--ie, it doesn't make much sense nowadays to code purely UI stuff in C++ if you've got a schedule to make, and it's not a terribly useful skill either if all you're gonna be doing is write code to serve web pages.

Ultimately this is one of those questions for which there is no definitive answer, as it all depends on a lot of factors that will vary from one person to the next.