Favorite programming languages?

[FrankDK]

My favorite language is APL (A Programming Language), an IBM-proprietary, matrix-oriented language.  I wrote a program to calculate the definite integral of any function over any domain, and did it in one line, including the input statement for the function and domain.

It was write-only code, though, because 20 minutes after you wrote the code, there was no way to decipher how it worked, so maintenance was basically impossible.

Still, it was fun.

Frank

[Jutter]

Even though I'm not into programming myself...

Logo: you know... that early-eighties programming-language with the little line-plotting turtle. The reason I believe it deserves some praise, is because it was probably the first proper attempt at making programming accesible to schoolkids. So for as far as you, as a programmer, find that honorable, the honorable mention is justified.

[Plu]

Programming languages designed for children are perhaps the most important ones there are. Likewise, languages that let you build things that kids find cool.

In that sense, things like GameMaker and other game related frameworks are great, because they let children build things that they consider fun. Even if it's just movement on the screen; that's something you don't easily get from regular programming languages.

When I was really young I tried to make a program that showed rotating squares on the screen. I couldn't do it, because it was just too hard. These days, I can teach someone to do that in 5 minutes using a games-language. And it works, because they actually build something enjoyable. It motivates.

[Colanth]

40 years earning a living developing code.  I just stopped doing it professionally a little over a year ago.

Languages?  Almost everything that's come down the pike, from machine language (no, not assembly, binary or octal opcodes and operands, including jumps to operands to shoehorn code into RAM smaller than the executable and interrupts generated in software).  Forth has to be at the bottom of my list (including derivations like STOIC).  Not difficult to work with, and very powerful, but when you have to come back to the real world it's a shock.  Reality isn't Polish.

Frank, APL isn't the only "write-only" language.  You can write a function in C without a single line break.  (You can also end up in a rubber room if you try to debug it.)

Plu, I spent my last 15 years writing in VB (supporting legacy apps - the guy in the next cube supported a load of COBOL stuff) and PHP.  I have no problem with PHP - it's the kind of language that doesn't make you think about the language when you're trying to get something done.  I even used it for desktop apps, if they weren't too complex.  (The only free compiler I know of is kind of trivial.)

I don't think I'll be doing much more programming, though.  If you don't do it every day, you forget things, and I have too much to do (retirement isn't easy) to spend a few hours a day writing code.

[Moriarty]

Or maybe we'll just start with "do you know how to program?"

I'm a professional PHP programmer by trade, but I think the language is kinda shitty.

At home I mostly program in Lua right now, which is awesome. For something as old at it is, it seems to be able to do a few things that I haven't really seen any other language do. Like multiple return values on functions. Or variable swapping.

I agree completely, I hate PHP.

Unfortunately the programming language I'm best at is one that isn't used much and even less in my degree field of databases. RPG IV. So easy.

[Icarus]

I've used R on occasion. It's not the most popular language but it's standard for a variety of bioinformatics packages.

[The Fly]

Which one would you all suggest for a base language to start off with. I took a Java class in high school 7 years ago, but I didn't retain much of the information. I'd like to learn a programming language at some point, but I have no idea where to start.

[Jason78]

Try Pascal.  It was originally invented as a teaching language.

[Plu]

Why do you want to learn to program, and what kinds of things do you want your programs to do? I'd say that's the first step in learning.

(Unless you're the kind of person who doesn't mind trudging through weeks of theory before actually doing something with their new knowledge, because I'm assuming right now that you want the learning itself to also be an enjoyable experience :D)

[The Fly]

I don't really know how to explain this lol, but I just want have enough base knowledge to figure out how to manipulate various apps that have an API such as Instapaper and what have you. Plus I figured if there was a fairly easy one to learn for my first one it'd give me enough knowledge to be able to connect the dots when studying other languages on my own to figure them out.

But thanks Jason, I am actually looking at a wikipedia page of Pascal right now just to sort of get an idea of what its about.

[Plu]

If you want to communicate with web-based APIs consider starting with PHP. It's designed for that kind of thing and it's very relaxed and open which makes it great for new programmers.

[The Fly]

If you want to communicate with web-based APIs consider starting with PHP. It's designed for that kind of thing and it's very relaxed and open which makes it great for new programmers.

Thanks for the tip. I am going to make a trip to the book store and see if they have any educational books on the subject later this week.

I gotta get on this programming language thing otherwise when robots are running for president in 50 years, I am going to have a hard time staying informed. :)

[Jason78]

PHP is an utter pig to use though.   It's hardly a language that encourages best practices.

[wolf39us]

PHP is an utter pig to use though.   It's hardly a language that encourages best practices.

agreed

[Plu]

And that's exactly why it's a good choice to start with. Nothing is more boring than "best practices", especially if you're a new user. When you start out, you want to be able to have something that works and you want to be able to play around. PHP does those things really well and gives you results quick, and that's motivational.

I would recommend switching out if you want to get serious about things and try out some stricter languages, to learn advanced topics, but for start stuff it's great.