Computer Progamming Languages

[philsussex]

Which ones do you use and for what purpose?

Did you find it easy(ish) to learn?

Strange question, I know, but I have a geekish love for programming languages and want to choose another to have a go at.

 

[Bad Ash]

The first language they taught on my uni course was SML. It was fairly easy, but I don't think it's really used commercially.

The first language I taught myself was LPC, because I was a geek who played on MUDs.

 

[RexCathedra]

Learned line-numbered Dartmouth BASIC (back when there was no lower case,) then an old forgotten language (Ibex) for the Ibycus (an HP 1000 tweaked for work in the humanities -- lexica, concordances, etc.) Then got sidetracked. Whole computer languages came and went in the interim.

Played around with perl a bit, ten years ago, then got sidetracked again

Just started a Python course. (Purists will argue that the latter two are scripting languages, not programming languages per se...)

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Give this a look. It's a free university course website. I'm going to do CS253 in the summer hopefully (looks interesting).

Udacity - Free Classes. Awesome Instructors. Inspiring Community.

 

[slinky]

C++ is the language of choice i use these days.

however i used to be able to program in Pascal / BASIC / COBOL & Ladder Logic

not bad for someone who is not a Programmer these days!!!

 

[gazingdown]

Try Prolog

 

[willow147]

Professionally I been through Cobol, RPG, VB6 and currently relearning into Java.

 

[gullshark]

I can speak Java, C# and Objective-C.

 

[snedger]

COBOL FTW! tons of other lingua from Commodore Pet BASIC, 6502 assembler circa 1979, onward.
did a java/IBM Websphere course 11 years ago and really cannot deal with peeps who learn by rote and do not truly understand how to answer any "Why?" questions, so I decided to remain a mainframe dinosaur, not evolve feathers and just crawl into that ever so warm comforting tar pit - come on in the pitch is wonderful! Oh no that is the sunstroke/heatstroke/lagerstroke - glug glug bubble bubble - plip!

 

[snedger]

COBOL FTW! tons of other lingua from Commodore Pet BASIC, 6502 assembler circa 1979, onward.
did a java/IBM Websphere course 11 years ago and really cannot deal with peeps who learn by rote and do not truly understand how to answer any "Why?" questions, so I decided to remain a mainframe dinosaur, not evolve feathers and just crawl into that ever so warm comforting tar pit - come on in the pitch is wonderful! Oh no that is the sunstroke/heatstroke/lagerstroke - glug glug bubble bubble - plip!

 

[larus]

Started with Cobol and BASIC many years ago.
Then learnt Dibol and Pascal.
Then VB.
More recently, a lot of my works is using scripting languages for Intranet development. However, I often utilise a range of technologies to solve the business need. This may be windows scripting, unix scriping, Oracle PL/SQL, Javascript/Jquery, HTML, CSS, VBscript (within ASP).

My view is that learning another language doesn't phase me at all. It's all just about syntax. The difficult part is, 'Can you think like a programmer'?

Last point, I detest the number of people who think they can program, either because they can read and maybe alter slightly someone elses code, yet haven't got a clue about code structure, creating re-useable code in library functions, coding standards, etc. Just because someone can copy/paste an example from the web and get something which 'sort of works', that doesn't make them a programmer. There are far too many amateurs posing as 'IT Professionals' IMO.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I'd like to make a point, I detest the number of people who think they can program, either because they can read and maybe alter slightly someone elses code, but they haven't got a clue about code structure, creating re-useable code in library functions, coding standards, etc. Anyone can copy/paste an example from the web and get something which 'kind of works', but that doesn't make them a programmer. I think there are far too many amateurs posing as 'IT Professionals'

 

[philsussex]

Give this a look. It's a free university course website. I'm going to do CS253 in the summer hopefully (looks interesting).

Udacity - Free Classes. Awesome Instructors. Inspiring Community.

Thank you. That looks interesting.

 

[happypig]

I dabble with vb.net but strictly as an amateur

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I'd like to make a point, I detest the number of people who think they can program, either because they can read and maybe alter slightly someone elses code, but they haven't got a clue about code structure, creating re-useable code in library functions, coding standards, etc. Anyone can copy/paste an example from the web and get something which 'kind of works', but that doesn't make them a programmer. I think there are far too many amateurs posing as 'IT Professionals'

Your right. I know how to put together a database driven website using PHP, MySQL. I understand HTML, CSS and I dipped my toe in to Perl. I have extensive knowledge of Photoshop and other areas. I can set up a basic lamp server, and make the server live. I can build a PC, install OS, drivers. I also understand basic unix commands. I also had first hand experience of what it is like to run a very busy platform. When I say busy, I mean busy. The site was turning over 300k a month. That was pressure. I was out of my depth at the start, but I learned a lot, and I gained lots of experience as regards servers, database loads, indexing.

As regards programming, I usually get my code by looking at examples on the web if there is something I don't understand. I understand what's going in PHP, and understand what functions are needed to perform a particular task.

However I would never consider myself as a proper programmer and I always make this clear. There are lots of cheaters in this industry. I consider a proper programmer as someone who can solve problems, and when asked to do a job with a list of requirements can complete the task without taking shortcuts.

It's to easy to set up forums, shopping carts, blogs as the scripts are already prepared, its another thing building these from scratch yourself. And in things like CPanel it's a one click install these days, so anyone can do it.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Started on Basic - many, many years ago. Progessed onto PLM86/286/386 - a language created by Intel, specifically for their iRMX real-time operating system. Then went into 'C'.

Have done C++ for the last, maybe, 15 years, and now can add C# to my armoury. Have also done a bit of Delphi & VB when the need arose. I don't count scripting languages like Perl, but have done some of that too.

C# is possibly the easiest to learn, but only if you have a solid foundation in OO practices. There is a large library of classes available it seems. I enjoy doing a bit of that (although I preferred it when I was in charge of allocating and freeing my dynamic memory, i.e. C++).

Edit : This is my job, I don't do it at all in my spare time !!

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Started on Basic - many, many years ago. Progessed onto PLM86/286/386 - a language created by Intel, specifically for their iRMX real-time operating system. Then went into 'C'.

Have done C++ for the last, maybe, 15 years, and now can add C# to my armoury. Have also done a bit of Delphi & VB when the need arose. I don't count scripting languages like Perl, but have done some of that too.

C# is possibly the easiest to learn, but only if you have a solid foundation in OO practices. There is a large library of classes available it seems. I enjoy doing a bit of that (although I preferred it when I was in charge of allocating and freeing my dynamic memory, i.e. C++).

Edit : This is my job, I don't do it at all in my spare time !!

Anyone that programs in C++ is a professional in my book. I did start a Java course on the OU, and I admit I failed. It annoys me still.
There are some people that could just pick it up and breeze through the whole course and have the course work done with about 3 weeks to spare. I really struggled with it. It was the terminology that got me.

When I was running the large website, an American company took over. They moved the platform from PHP & MySQL, over to their own site which was using Perl & MySQL. These guys really knew there Perl stuff. I took quite a bit away from it. Like I said my job was stressful, but I looked at it as an opportunity and tried to take as much as I could from it.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Bit of RPG and java

Used to do some programming on the spectrum Zx which I wrote a programme to work out angles and stuff.

After that wanted to be an architect.....but ended up faffing about in it.


Anyone here use ldap at work?

 

[Harold]

Mainly Ada, C++ and C# these days for main application source, with XML and Python script support code.

Initially BASIC on home computer, then lots of assembler (old git), before moving onto Pascal, then loads of database SQL ,then emersed in OOD for what seems forever in high integrity Ada software development.

 

[Simster]

I'd like to make a point, I detest the number of people who think they can program, either because they can read and maybe alter slightly someone elses code, but they haven't got a clue about code structure, creating re-useable code in library functions, coding standards, etc. Anyone can copy/paste an example from the web and get something which 'kind of works', but that doesn't make them a programmer. I think there are far too many amateurs posing as 'IT Professionals'

This is the correct answer. I'm not complaining though - it's the reason I manage to get well paid jobs. My code actually works and is well written, and wrapped in unit tests meaning little maintenance. It all means that I get away with spending my working life on NSC reasonably safe in the knowledge that the firm knows the chances are that a replacement would be gash.