NationStates Jolt Archive

What's your favorite programming language and why? There will be a poll shortly.
My favorite is Java. Partly because it's the only one I know (unless you count a little of C/C++). Also, I like it because you can put it anywhere. You can write an application for a computer, an applet for the internet, or (as I just found out) a MIDlet for most newish cell phones. Also, the APIs make it relatively easy to do pretty much anything you want. Within a few days, I went from knowing nothing about GUIs to being able to create pretty much any GUI I could think of.

Cobol (paid lots in y2K).

Seriously though I don't have a favourite. It depends on the application. Dont ask me to program a text editor in Fortran, but equally I would not want to write a spreadsheet in Cobol.

I've often considered taking up programming as a hobby, but I haven't found a good programming language.

What Alien Born said but I will add that what someone is willing to pay for a custom app in the language that they want also factors into the equation.


Syntax is syntax...nothing more...nothing less.

*clears throat*

Where's PHP in all this? And don't tell me it's not a real programming language, there is a such thing as PHP-GTK, you know!


But seriously, you should've put an "Other" option this time...

You left out a major contender in Perl.

But I use various languages for different tasks.

I'm surprised Perl isn't there...

But Python is my favourite :D
Pity there's not strong typing...

Hmm it depends on what I am doing, if I am writing a 3d application that has to be very very fast it's c++, if I am writing a shell script or conversion script or something like that it's perl, and if I need to write something large with a gui I preffer java. I also like PHP, though I haven't used it much. I loathe BASIC, and hate anything .NET, so there are few things I hate more than vb. Unfortunatly I am fixing several programs written in vb, without comments and with variables like cat and dog. :headbang:

No PHP? I'm insulted. But besides that, my favorite is Python. It is a really cool language.

For those of you who have commented on the poll choices, I chose them by finding a list of programming languages on the internet and finding the ones whose names I recognized immediately. Also, Jolt only gives space for 10 options, so there had to be something left out. I put INTERCAL on as a joke choice, so you can use it as an "other" if you want.

So far I have used a bit of BASIC, and nowdays program in C++. BASIC is, well, too basic. (ahahahaaa!) C++ can be used for pretty much anything, and is an excellent general-purpose language. Currently I'm working on a weird textbased RPG in Swedish (altought it is turning into an engine with separate game data) and a currently unreleased set of VST-plugins.

I've often considered taking up programming as a hobby, but I haven't found a good programming language.Not found a good programming language? There are plenty of good languages. What would you work on, if you would start programming? Just choose whatever language you think would be the best for it. If you don't have any specific needs not covered by it, C++ is often a good choice, by the way, since it is so widely supported.

C ... usualy the preffered language in network programming

C++ is alright as well ... I like it but because of the overhead we stay away from it usualy

Though some of our code to trim it out is in assembly ... but small portion

No PHP? I'm insulted. But besides that, my favorite is Python. It is a really cool language.
Php is a scripting language ... I understand why it was not included (along with ASP and Pearl)

Why is MATLAB not on the list? That's the only language I've learnt and it has completely put me off programming. Glad I'm going into civil engineering so there's not a need for that.

You forgot Turbo Pascal! Had to vote for basic in that case ;)

I stick to BASICS in life ... the visual type :D

BASIC!!! You can have your complex languages, nothing beats the simplicity and familiarity of that first language you learn, and for me it is BASIC.

What's your favorite programming language and why? There will be a poll shortly.
My favorite is Java. Partly because it's the only one I know (unless you count a little of C/C++). Also, I like it because you can put it anywhere. You can write an application for a computer, an applet for the internet, or (as I just found out) a MIDlet for most newish cell phones. Also, the APIs make it relatively easy to do pretty much anything you want. Within a few days, I went from knowing nothing about GUIs to being able to create pretty much any GUI I could think of.

C++ is my favorite, with Pascal (and Delphi, Borland's Object-Oriented Pascal) following in a close second.

For web-programming, I preffer PHP.

BASIC!!! You can have your complex languages, nothing beats the simplicity and familiarity of that first language you learn, and for me it is BASIC.
Basic was my first but I soon fell in love with the C and C++ languages

Php is a scripting language ... I understand why it was not included (along with ASP and Pearl)

PHP4 is a scripting language; PHP5 is object-oriented; and it can be compiled. Thought; for the most part it is pretty much a C/C++ derivative... So it likely should be left out. Same with ASP.NET.....

PHP4 is a scripting language; PHP5 is object-oriented; and it can be compiled. Thought; for the most part it is pretty much a C/C++ derivative... So it likely should be left out. Same with ASP.NET.....
Yeah … I should have clarified :)

BASIC!!! You can have your complex languages, nothing beats the simplicity and familiarity of that first language you learn, and for me it is BASIC.

I learned Pascal; as my first language (on Borland Turbo Pascal 3.02) in AP Computer Science 1, in High School, on IBM PS/2 model 8530's (8Mhz 8086); that didn't even have hard-drives. The units were near top-of-the-line (at the time)... Though the next year in Comp-Sci 2; C++; the lab had upgraded to generic 12Mhz 80286's... Blazing fast mosters at the time. They even had 40Mb Hard-Drives!

As for BASIC as a programming language.... I'll let Mr. Schmitter (my old Comp-Sci teacher) speak....

"Who here has taken BASIC?"... (A smattering of hands go up)... "Ok, forget everything you learned...."

I learned Pascal; as my first language (on Borland Turbo Pascal 3.02) in AP Computer Science 1, in High School, on IBM PS/2 model 8530's (8Mhz 8086); that didn't even have hard-drives. The units were near top-of-the-line (at the time)... Though the next year in Comp-Sci 2; C++; the lab had upgraded to generic 12Mhz 80286's... Blazing fast mosters at the time. They even had 40Mb Hard-Drives!

As for BASIC as a programming language.... I'll let Mr. Schmitter (my old Comp-Sci teacher) speak....

"Who here has taken BASIC?"... (A smattering of hands go up)... "Ok, forget everything you learned...."
What you mean we aren’t supposed to use GOTO’s anymore ? *GASP*

What you mean we aren’t supposed to use GOTO’s anymore ? *GASP*

10 goto 20
20 goto 10

:D

10 goto 20
20 goto 10

:D
Lovly loop you got going there lol


And got to love the spaghetti code it makes

Mmmm spaghetti code ....

MMMM spaghetti

Damn it now I am hungry

What you mean we aren’t supposed to use GOTO’s anymore ? *GASP*

1st rule of programming... Unconditional loops are a no-no... One slip and you're in an infinite loop; and it's time to reboot (especially in my day before multi-threading [really time-sharing]; when you couldn't terminate running apps).

It's quite abit harder in Pascal:

_
program infiniteloop;
var
tmp1 : longint;
tmp2 : longint;

begin
tmp1 := 0;
tmp2 := 1;
while NOT(tmp1 == tmp2) do
begin
tmp1 := 0;
end;
end.

C ... usualy the preffered language in network programming

C++ is alright as well ... I like it but because of the overhead we stay away from it usualyIf you avoid using OOP and use C++ for C-style procedural programming, there is no extra overhead, and you get the other benefits of C++. Why not do so, if OOP is deemed too costly?

I learned Pascal; as my first language (on Borland Turbo Pascal 3.02) in AP Computer Science 1, in High School, on IBM PS/2 model 8530's (8Mhz 8086); that didn't even have hard-drives. The units were near top-of-the-line (at the time)... Though the next year in Comp-Sci 2; C++; the lab had upgraded to generic 12Mhz 80286's... Blazing fast mosters at the time. They even had 40Mb Hard-Drives!

As for BASIC as a programming language.... I'll let Mr. Schmitter (my old Comp-Sci teacher) speak....

"Who here has taken BASIC?"... (A smattering of hands go up)... "Ok, forget everything you learned...."

Luxury mate, pure luxury. When I started (1976) PCs didn't exist, and home computing was more a electronics hobby than anything else (Altair etc.) SO what I learnt to program was Fortran 66 (77 was still a year away) on a battered and abused ICL 1900A mainframe running a paging operating system called George 3.

I've found Rebol very nice and easy for small and quick projects. It's also a very good starting language if anyone is interested, but it's more of a scripting language.

I also like Java and C for bigger things. Lately I've been using the Amiga side of the computer a bit more and used the Basics there: Amos, and Blitz Basic mainly.

I learned Fortran many years ago, but haven't used it since then.

If you avoid using OOP and use C++ for C-style procedural programming, there is no extra overhead, and you get the other benefits of C++. Why not do so, if OOP is deemed too costly?

I like C, but case-sensitivity is nasty when tracking down errors.

If you avoid using OOP and use C++ for C-style procedural programming, there is no extra overhead, and you get the other benefits of C++. Why not do so, if OOP is deemed too costly?
I remember reading somewhere that C++ was originally designed to be an OOP version of C, but it pretty much failed. Java is better in that regard because it forces you to make objects, although a "clever" programmer could write an entirely procedure based program in java. If you really need an object oriented program, you really should use java, and if you need a procedural program, use c++. When I first learned C++, I had to write a simple program for an assignment that took me about an hour. When I learned to think about the pieces of the program as objects, the same program took me about 5 minutes, not because I was more experienced, but because I had found a much better way to do it.

Gotta be Java, that's the one I know best.

Hey we Java dudes are one behind C++ keep it coming guys, we've gotta win.

I remember reading somewhere that C++ was originally designed to be an OOP version of C, but it pretty much failed. Java is better in that regard because it forces you to make objects, although a "clever" programmer could write an entirely procedure based program in java. If you really need an object oriented program, you really should use java, and if you need a procedural program, use c++. When I first learned C++, I had to write a simple program for an assignment that took me about an hour. When I learned to think about the pieces of the program as objects, the same program took me about 5 minutes, not because I was more experienced, but because I had found a much better way to do it.

C++ didn't fail.....

Gotta be Java, that's the one I know best.

Hey we Java dudes are one behind C++ keep it coming guys, we've gotta win.

Java won't win.... C++ execution time is way faster than Java; and for that reason; there will still be alot of us C++ people out there.

Java may be usefull for cross-platform usage; but when you want the bang for your codeing work, you're going to use C++. 20 to 30 times faster execution is enough for me....

I like Delphi. It's easier to use than C++, isn't the filthy offspring of chaos like Java, and isn't as downright sketchy as VB.

I am actually at the moment thinking about what language would be best to start teaching my son. (He has started asking questions about programming.)

As he is young I want something that does not require all the formal structuring of Java or C++, I want something that will enable him to get quick results. (Interpreted rather than compiled). I am thinking about using Python, but I have never used the language myself. Any advice on this?

C++ didn't fail.....
What I meant was C++ doesn't enforce its OO nature, so beginning programmers (like I was) tend to find OOP more confusing than in Java. Conversely, beginners who start with Java may find procedural programming more confusing. Also, the speed advantage that C++ has isn't particularly important except in certain types of applications (maybe real-time gaming). Most people wouldn't necessarily notice the difference unless they ran identical programs written in the 2 languages simultaneously on otherwise identical computers, and techniques like JIT significantly speed up Java programs running on newer versions of the JVM.

I am actually at the moment thinking about what language would be best to start teaching my son. (He has started asking questions about programming.)

As he is young I want something that does not require all the formal structuring of Java or C++, I want something that will enable him to get quick results. (Interpreted rather than compiled). I am thinking about using Python, but I have never used the language myself. Any advice on this?
Alice (http://www.alice.org) is a pretty good program to help introduce programming. It essentially uses Java, but it's drag-and-drop, and very visual. You can get instant results for simple things, and as he gets better, he can spend more time on some complex things. The program is free to download (takes a while though), but I don't think the book is. I've got the book, so I could send you some stuff from it, or you could just play around and work it out for yourself. It's pretty easy.
EDIT: I just checked the website, and they've just finished beta mode a couple months ago, so it should be much less buggy than when I used it.

What I meant was C++ doesn't enforce its OO nature, so beginning programmers (like I was) tend to find OOP more confusing than in Java. Conversely, beginners who start with Java may find procedural programming more confusing. Also, the speed advantage that C++ has isn't particularly important except in certain types of applications (maybe real-time gaming). Most people wouldn't necessarily notice the difference unless they ran identical programs written in the 2 languages simultaneously on otherwise identical computers, and techniques like JIT significantly speed up Java programs running on newer versions of the JVM.

C++ still needs to retain alot of backwards compatability with C so It can't always enforce OO.

I'm starting to like c# now but is my favourite is still c++.

Although if Brainfuck was in the options I'd have picked that. Lots of fun ;)

-Jimus-

I like Delphi. It's easier to use than C++, isn't the filthy offspring of chaos like Java, and isn't as downright sketchy as VB.

Delphi is cool (all it is is Object-Oriented Pascal)... And Pascal was my first Language love...

Delphi is cool (all it is is Object-Oriented Pascal)... And Pascal was my first Language love...

Dragging buttons about and making pretty forms does not make a language OO. ;)

I'm quite sure that Delphi is still just a procedural language with a wysiwyg IDE.

-Jimus-

I am actually at the moment thinking about what language would be best to start teaching my son. (He has started asking questions about programming.)

As he is young I want something that does not require all the formal structuring of Java or C++, I want something that will enable him to get quick results. (Interpreted rather than compiled). I am thinking about using Python, but I have never used the language myself. Any advice on this?
Rebol is also very easy to learn, but can create powerful applications: www.rebol.com

Java is my fav, partyly beacuse its a really neat pure langauge, partly because its cross-platform, but mainly because the standard libraries are so well done (although theyare starting to get a bit bloated). C# has some nice touches too, but suffers some by allowing unsafe code and being heavily reflection orientated (which some may take as a good thing, not me). Also Java's librarys pee all over the .NET framework which is good in bits, and god-awful in others.

Dragging buttons about and making pretty forms does not make a language OO. ;)

I'm quite sure that Delphi is still just a procedural language with a wysiwyg IDE.

-Jimus-

And you're also quite wrong.

None of the above. Assembly for the particular DSP processor involved is the absolute best way to write good, fast code.

My favorite higher-level language is VHDL.

2 words:

Brain Fuck

chick post of the day:

I chose "Python" because it's the coolest-sounding of the bunch!

hehe j/k ladies!

And you're also quite wrong.

Hows that? The bit about it not being OO? Of the bit about dragging stuff about not being OO?

-Jimus-

I don't know. I am taking a math course that I registered for just before they updated their books, so I'm getting the lowdown on BASIC along with the actual math, and let me tell you it's annoying the shit out of me.

Otherwise, I don't know any computer programming, but I find it fun to mess with HTML on my blog.

Hows that? The bit about it not being OO? Of the bit about dragging stuff about not being OO?

-Jimus-


Whoopsie (http://www.delphibasics.co.uk/Article.asp?Name=OO)

Apologies for being mean to your language ;)

I still prefer c# though :P

-Jimus-

Whoopsie (http://www.delphibasics.co.uk/Article.asp?Name=OO)

Apologies for being mean to your language ;)

I still prefer c# though :P

-Jimus-

C# is better than Java, IMO.....

I still preffer C++ however, for my use. It's great, and streamlined for hard-math based applications and utility design.

Web-Design, I'm heavily PHP (Especially now with PHP5 as an OOP-Language)...