What programming language should i learn?

[Sunrocks]

I would suggest you learn Javascript. 

Use it with some HTML. You can see directly what you are doing, you need no special programs. Just  a text editor and a browser. You can even start to do some things in the console of your browser. 

Later you can use this for a lot of different uses. 

I started with Java and C#. Later Javascript. Maybe I am biased but learning JS was most fun.

[Dat Guy]

JavaScript will directly fall on your foot.

[Dat Guy]

Because Python invites you to write horrible code, e.g,. it encourages you to "try..catch" everything instead of writing clean code so exceptions would be rare anyway. Python is nice for prototyping and it can do "anything" (except native compiling), so Python would probably not invite you to learn other languages as well.

 

I'm happy to have learned Python rather late. I admit it's inviting to just take Python for whatever you want to. You'll easily forget why Python is not the best answer to many problems. Its performance isn't actually great either, and it teaches many bad habits.

 

YMMV though.

[fizzlesticks]

11 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

e.g,. it encourages you to "try..catch" everything instead of writing clean code so exceptions would be rare anyway. 

That is clean code in Python, it's designed to be used that way. Just because it's different than other languages doesn't make it horrible code. 

[Dat Guy]

"Assume that it breaks" is horrible.

[riklaunim]

19 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Because Python invites you to write horrible code, e.g,. it encourages you to "try..catch" everything instead of writing clean code so exceptions would be rare anyway.

Try/catching for normal application flow is a big no-no for good Python code. The same for catch everything instead of specific possible exceptions that require handling. But that doesn't mean that you have to abuse None to avoid exceptions or do other shenanigans. In the company I work at we have a code review and such code would never pass. You can write bad looking code in any language.

[fizzlesticks]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

"Assume that it breaks" is horrible.

Exceptions in Python aren't the same thing as exceptions in C++ or Java or whatever other language. An exception in Python doesn't mean something "broke".

[probE466]

Performance on Python is crazy slow, but the language is not really whats important, you've got to learn the concepts of programming, you can pick up any other language in a couple of weeks after that. Personally, I started with Java in university, which is an awesome language for most things