What programming language should I learn?

[vorticalbox]

10 hours ago, toobladink said:

I'm going to suggest C++. Once you understand everything in that language and its ability, you'll be able to stroll into more modern languages really easy. Maybe combine some C# with it too, as both are extremely powerful

I started with PHP -> python -> nodejs and moved quite easily between them.

Everyone seems to think learning c++ first suddenly makes everything else easier, it doesn't. It will give you a better understanding of types and memory management  and the like.

[toobladink]

5 hours ago, vorticalbox said:

I started with PHP -> python -> nodejs and moved quite easily between them.

Everyone seems to think learning c++ first suddenly makes everything else easier, it doesn't. It will give you a better understanding of types and memory management  and the like.

See, I think learning a lower level language is really beneficial as the learning curve is slightly "more steep" with understanding code (and what certain operators and such do) and then make it seem like higher level languages are just regular english. After a year on c++, I feel like I can pick up any language and adjust quite easily.

[Sauron]

38 minutes ago, toobladink said:

After a year on c++, I feel like I can pick up any language and adjust quite easily.

I would argue that would be true after a year spent working with almost any language.

[cluelessgenius]

this question has been asked over and over again.

im in my 9th year as a software dev now and from my experience youll learn a bit of everything over time. honestl one you have understood the basic principals then adapting to a new language is quite easy. of course you wont know al the intricacies but to get where youre going itll usually be enough.

i write mainly c# where i can but ultimatively i have to adapt to whatever the project im working on requires.

 

now if youre asking where to start id suggest python or c. that said i havent worked c++ yet so i cant comment on it but the pi is basically made with python in mind and its a very easy point to start. arduinos again i havent worked with yet but a colleague of mine writes his in c or assembler or whatever its called im really not a rea time code kinda guy.

 

so start whereever you want but id sugest python on the py and c# on windows. just dont make the mistake and try windows iot on the pi. its terrible. with all sorts of restrictions and most annoyingly for me it doesnt offer hardware accelerated graphics since microsoft wont release a driver because the the damn broadcom chip apprentl isnt good enough for their fancy directx certification. so no gui stuffs in windows iot. ....just stay away from it.

[toobladink]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

I would argue that would be true after a year spent working with almost any language.

I feel like it would be much harder to pick up something lower level like C or C++ after first learning a language like Python though.

[Sauron]

Just now, toobladink said:

I feel like it would be much harder to pick up something lower level like C or C++ after first learning a language like Python though.

In my university the introductory programming course was in python and the course after that was in C. It never felt like having used python first made C any harder and it's good to learn about the basics without needing to worry about pointers and memory management. Languages are just tools, what matters are the underlying concepts and you can learn the concept of a loop just as well in python.

[DianeLeigh]

When I was in school, you could start with COBOL, C++, or visual basic... they honestly didn't care.  But, one teacher had a "test" to see if a person could "think like a programmer" to get in the mindset of programming that ironically helped more than some of the actual programming tasks (granted she did this in a visual basic class--I did it like 10-15 years after I had been doing basic/qbasic/etc programming)

 

Anyway, she had people do a simple thing of "teach a computer android how to make a peanut butter sandwich".  Almost everyone failed (ok, everyone basically did, I was out of class that day, no clue how I would've done honestly at the time).  Because:1) you had to tell it to retrieve items, 2) you had to keep track of how many items the android could carry, 3) you had to keep track of where the items were placed, what was in hands, if items were opened, how to open, how to lay bread down, how to butter/jelly/peanutbutter the bread, how to close, how to seal containers, how to put things up, how to then eat the sandwich... basically, "how to allocate and destroy all programming resources"

 

Anyway... what language you should learn is kind of up to you.  Personally I'd opt for like c# (or variant), as I find that the general syntax and formatting carry over to other languages, but then if you only want to do web design... well then it depends on if you're going to be on apache like or iis servers (as then c# and php come into play--but then php again is kind of similar to c# in general syntax in a sense--at least to me, but again, I've been programming since around... 1985 I think... can't remember  I was really young then!

 

I generally find that kind of like the peanut butter making example, learning the general logic of programming helps in a sense a lot, but then programming also has like database, middle-interface, user interface.... for that matter user interface design is a design thing all in it's own.

[vorticalbox]

17 hours ago, toobladink said:

After a year on c++, I feel like I can pick up any language and adjust quite easily.

That's how you feel and not everyone will feel the same

I started my current job just about 2 years ago knowing nothing but a week of a node I did before my interview, got hired on 18 k and within a year was on 30k. The closest i got to anything lower level was LMC[1] that I did in my computer science degree

1. https://peterhigginson.co.uk/lmc/

[Dat Guy]

18 hours ago, toobladink said:

After a year on c++, I feel like I can pick up any language and adjust quite easily.

Good luck writing some APL.