Language to Jump in to

[newcbomb]

So ive already learned HTML and CSS and im looking for another language that i can dive into easily like HTML. But, what should i start with?

 

Heres a list of languages i considering. 

 

- Python

- PHP

- C++

- Java

- Unix Bash

 

Basically, im looking for something as easy to get into as HTML was, since i could create a simple website after minutes of learning. Any help is appreciated. Also, this is just for a hobby, i dont have any "needs" of coding.

[Techicolors]

if you learned HTML and CSS why not Javascript? 

 

personally i wouldn't try to learn a lot of languages at once. just get to know all the general stuff first

[vorticalbox]

31 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

if you learned HTML and CSS why not Javascript? 

 

personally i wouldn't try to learn a lot of languages at once. just get to know all the general stuff first

Agreed you can then use JavaScript for your server with node and then a front end framework like angular or react.

[Dune II]

Depends on what you want to make and what you are comfortable with.

Take Visual Studio Code as an development environment, that has plenty of different languages and examples and works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Just click around and see what you like.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'll be that guy. HTML isn't a programming language, it's a markup language. It's meant to describe the layout of a document.

 

But if you want to learn something that compliments knowing HTML, JavaScript is the way to go. You can program things to make the HTML page actually interactive and dynamic. Basically HTML is the GUI while JavaScript is the business logic that processes all the inputs and generates/modifies outputs.

[Enumer8]

Really it depends what you want to get out of programming as a hobby?

 

• Do you want to improve your websites more? Maybe learn some PHP - yes it takes a bit more setup in terms of a localhost setup but it can be quick to learn and can scale well learning new concepts.
• I personally wouldn't recommend JavaScript as a first language to learn, it has a lot of little idiosyncrasies that 1) take some getting used to  2) it requires (in my opinion) a knowledge of the Document object model to really "click" and 3) it can just be really frustrating in the way it throws errors. Sure add it here and there if you are playing with websites but I found learning solid programming principles before learning Javascript really helped me with it.
• Do you want to learn programming concepts and want a language that is clear to read? Python is great for learning and easy to read other people's code and understand what is going on.
• Do you want to build simple projects and build more as you learn more? The Arduino is great if you are willing to so some simple electrics, and can lead to some fun projects ( a friend of mine built a simple Arduino robot within months of first learning with it) .
• C++ is not a language you "Dip into" to quickly learn, I would not recommend it as a first programming language.
• Java (or indeed c#) are good for learning plenty of programming techniques, but be aware for a while you will probably be limited to producing console applications as opposed to amazing GUIs.

Whatever you choose, I recommend checking the validity of the sites you are learning from.. I first learnt PHP and found out over a year into learning it that the resources I had been using were outdated and had been teaching me bad habits that I then had to "un-learn".

 

But most of all have fun! Programming can be engaging, rewarding and frustrating all at the same time but I wouldn't change it for the world, the moment you manage to solve something you have been trying to implement is worth all the effort!

[Guest]

Easy?  

i mean C++ isn’t HARD but you can do so much and learn so many cool things with it 

[Beskamir]

I'd recommend trying Python or C# although eventually you'd probably want to try learning C++.

 

6 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I'll be that guy. HTML isn't a programming language, it's a markup language. It's meant to describe the layout of a document.

 

But if you want to learn something that compliments knowing HTML, JavaScript is the way to go. You can program things to make the HTML page actually interactive and dynamic. Basically HTML is the GUI while JavaScript is the business logic that processes all the inputs and generates/modifies outputs.

Exactly this. PowerPoint's got more of a claim to being a programming language than HTML does and nobody in their right mind would call that a programming language.

Note powerpoint's not actually Turing complete as the tape cannot be extended arbitrarily. It has to be predefined before running.

[Dat Guy]

18 hours ago, newcbomb said:

But, what should i start with?

Write in C. If you absolutely don't want to because people misinformed you about its difficulties, try Common Lisp too.

Stay away from JavaScript with its inconsistent syntax and Python with its horrible speed and "whitespace has a meaning" idiocy.

[colonel_mortis]

This is a topic about which programming language is best for the OP to learn next, not on whether you can write a cleaner solution to some problem in C# or Lisp. Please try to stay on topic.

[lewdicrous]

Python is easy (imo) if you want to learn something just for fun

[migeo]

my vote goes to either C++ or JS. C++ is a very good language to start learning since you'll be able to learn other languages pretty easily. It's a very good base/first language to learn (HTML and CSS don't really count as languages tbh). However, since you already know HTML and CSS, JavaScript would be an obvious choice as well. You'll be able to do much more when using HTML. In the end, you choose.

[Beskamir]

12 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

Write in C. If you absolutely don't want to because people misinformed you about its difficulties, try Common Lisp too.

Stay away from JavaScript with its inconsistent syntax and Python with its horrible speed and "whitespace has a meaning" idiocy.

As someone that loves C++ to death and wants to do almost everything in it, I completely disagree with what you're saying. Sure it's a fact that Python executes slower than C/C++, but writing/learning/debugging it is much faster. That's basically why Python's such a great scripting language and it's commonly used for quickly scrapping something useful together in 20-30 mins. For instance, I commonly use it as a calculator to compute everything from basic operations and sums of arbitrary array's to confidence limits and analytically solved derivatives. Although I can see your point on whitespace having a meaning being dumb it's a great way to engrave good programming style into a novice.

 

As for Lisp, all I can say to that is this: https://xkcd.com/297/

[Dat Guy]

"Scrapping something useful together" is doable in any language in which you are sufficiently experienced.

[Moon Man]

Well, generally recommend python.

It's really easy to learn because of its syntax, but being an interpreted language is slower compared to something like C++ which is compiled.

Also, if you are going to learn python, I'd recommend installing 'anaconda'  so you can have easy access to the multitude of libraries of python for scientific and data science applications, plus the easy creation of environments.

As for the IDE, I personally use pycharm community edition, but any should be fine.

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, Moon Man said:

being an interpreted language is slower compared to something like C++ which is compiled.

Also, learning C's syntax will give you implicit knowledge about algorithms, Go, Rust, C++, C#, JavaScript, even (to some extent) Pascal/Delphi. Learning Python will give you knowledge about algorithms - at best.

[UnAfraid89]

GoLang its very good new modern language.

Cross platform language just like java/python but without the runtime necessity

It compiles down to native code so no runtime required,supports a lot of architectures besides x86.

It has ability to be compiled fully static meaning no external dependencies will be needed (Seriously not even libc!)

 - That makes it very portable if you use docker as well your images will be super small like 5-10 mb for small applications

And not to mention is a language that you can literally learn in a day or two

 

Completing golang tour will be good way to get started

https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1

[Guest]

I feel like a bored mobile gamer just said the Xbox is better than PC because paid servers are more reliable at a Pc gaming LAN convention. 

 

To OP, a lot of useful languages have been given to you, but I think it’s come down to 3 choices. 

1. If you want to continue web development, and get a good language under your belt that can get you a great job, study Javascript. 

 

2. If you want to learn as much as you can about how the computer handles data and memory, study C or C++. 

 

3. If you want to study a language simply for the understanding of logic, study python. 

 

2 & 3 will also lead to getting a great job as many game studios use C and C++. Additionally a lot of backend servers use python if I’m not mistaken.

 

Though you can write backend in anything (except HTML and CSS) it’s what many companies are using. And though you can write a game in Any language, C and C++ are the most common, if the custom scripting language’s syntax isn’t based off C++. 

[Dat Guy]

18 hours ago, UnAfraid89 said:

GoLang its very good new modern language.

Cross platform language just like java/python but without the runtime necessity

So is C.

[UnAfraid89]

8 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

So is C.

C ain't very suitable for writing web sites with, don't you think?

[Dat Guy]

No, I don't.

https://learnbchs.org/

[straight_stewie]

Well, you could learn BrainFuck. BrainFuck is Turing complete, so with enough effort and dedication you can shoehorn it into any field.

[UnAfraid89]

13 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

No, I don't.

https://learnbchs.org/

Here we're not talking about possibility, as everything's possible you can write a website with everything even standard unix tools like bash, nc and so, but that doesn't makes it good for that.

C is very good language, but when it comes to writing websites you don't see most of the websites out there using C right?

[Dat Guy]

Neither you nor I are capable of checking every website's internal code. 

[UnAfraid89]

14 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Neither you nor I are capable of checking every website's internal code. 

Most popular languages for backend are PHP, Java/C#, Python, Ruby, NodeJS (Not necessarily in that order)

And new languages like Go, Rust, Elixir are starting to gain popularity