What programming language to learn?

[bitplane]

I quite like the idea of what 7 languages in 7 weeks tries to do, although I wouldn't have picked those seven languages they're a pretty good selection.

7 languages in 7 weeks? Why not Japanese, Spanish, Italian, English, Latin, Mandarin, German and French in 7 weeks? A programming language worth learning is something you learn to think in, which means committing several years to its mastery. Something you can learn in a week is not something worth learning. Do you actually know anyone who learned Haskell or even C in a week?!

http://norvig.com/21-days.html

[1714016085]

1714016085

[martin]

I learnt haskell in the 48 hours before my exam, which was apparently a very hard exam and I achieved the top classification in

I learnt python in a week when I wanted to build a site for appengine.

I learnt every nook and cranny of java (shudder) in a 12 week group software development coursework project at uni.

The point here is the language that had the most impact was haskell, even though I learnt it the fastest - once I understood the concept the remaining two weeks *after* the exam I spent playing with it taught me very little beyond the precious "aha" moment when I suddenly "got it". The point of 7 languages in 7 weeks is to throw a load of different concepts at you so they all mix together in your head and you're comfortable using the best tool for the job. If you spend several years learning how to use a language and a paradigm you become extremely attached to both of them and start using it for jobs which it isn't ideally suited for.

Obviously once the seven weeks are up you should spend more time learning the languages and paradigms you like in detail, but the important thing is understanding the concepts behind the paradigms (maximising the "aha" moments) not the exact syntax of each language.

What's the use of learning the basics of a load of languages you'll never use any more? Well For example, I no longer use Haskell but still consider it one of my favourite languages because I use LINQ every day, I only love LINQ so much because of what Haskell taught me about the power of that kind of thing. I also develop a lot of networking stuff, and what I learnt from fiddling with erlang for about 12 hours (I never even really wrote a program in it, I just read a lot of the documentation and understood the concept) has a huge influence on that.

[99Percent]

Has anyone mentioned Free Pascal?

I have started something: http://code.google.com/p/fpbitcoin/ but Its running on low piority at the moment. I hack on it a few hours every few days. I'm doing this (mostly on my own) as an attempt to (a) learn and understand every little detail of the bitcoin protocol and (b) to document for me (and others) what I have found.

If everything succeeds then the end result will be a lightweight cross platform bitcoin client (a non-gui unit implementing the bitcoin protocol and a rich graphical client to manage a wallet) that does not suffer from the many problems of the "official" client. But this might take some time until its usable since I'm only working part time on it and I want to do most of it myself (for the learning effect).

Very interesting. I will be following it and hopefully contribute some. I believe there is an ssl_openssl_lib.pas that handles compilation under different OS like win and linux, you might want to use instead (ararat synapse uses it).

[grondilu]

Haven't read all this thread, but here is my opinion:

- C is the most influential modern programming language.  You should at least read Kerningam and Rithie's book:  "The C programming language", and trie to write a few C programs.
- python is a widely popular language.  It's very easy to learn and it's a good introduction to even more modern programming languages, which use concepts such as garbage collection and just-in-time compiling.  It's also an easy way to get familiar with object programming.
- some knowledge of java, javascript and PHP can not be avoided if you want to focus on web programming.


- C++ is nice but tough to master.  I personnaly thought I knew C++, until I read Satoshi's code

[Man From The Future]

If the question was, "which language is not to learn?" than I would know the answer: "PHP".

And why?

If I answer that I would probably offend a lot of people. So,  I'll pass on it this time.

Also, last time I checked axioms do not require proof.  

You started the troll...

My posts are reflection of my personal experience... which is rather relevant and extensive... if you do not like it feel free to ignore.

There is no bad language only bad programmers. PHP has the best documentation ever, the most servers running it and since version 5 allows object oriented programming... Sure it offers so much freedom that if you do not code clean your program will be a mess...

True, but somehow bad programmers tend to gravitate to PHP. It is like a bad neighbourhood which is best to avoid...

Friends do not let friends to do PHP, you know.

Bad coders don't make the language bad? Although it has no consistency in naming of built-ins, which is annoying, and no threading, which is really annoying, and tells you "Stop trying to use PHP for this you should be using something else", which can be annoying until you learn something else. The discussion in this thread makes me want to learn python, and mess around with C# some more.

Although I know I won't get good at them because I have nothing to code just now that I want to code in them, but I hope I shall eventually...

[martin]

I have nothing to code just now that I want to code in them, but I hope I shall eventually...

Trying writing a program that aggregates streams of bitcoin financial data using Rx and then selects "interesting" things out of the combinations of these different data streams. That's how I learnt Rx

[zonezICO]

Hello, sorry to bump this older thread but was curious if anybody had an opinion now in 2018 on which languages would be most helpful for bitcoin/blockchain projects?

C++ is what bitcoin is written in

Go is mature port for Ethereum but the bug with the Parity wallet in Solidity?

Many local coding schools are pitching Python as good language and since I also have an interest in data science/GIS, this would be nice since I'd be knocking out 3 birds with one stone but I also like Clojure based on the designer of the language, Rich Hickey.  Love his talks on Youtube.

Haven't found much on Scala but since Spark is built with Scala, was hoping to somehow work on how blockchain and Big Data might compliment each other?

I know Tezos was built on Ocaml but if I'm going to learn a language that has both functional and OO elements, then I'd prefer to stick with Clojure.

Lastly, not sure if how concurrency/parallelism directly impacts blockchain but if it does, why aren't more projects built using Elixir/Erlang?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

thanks in advance,
Z

[ilyashpakin2015]

Basically all sites are in English Therefore it's better to know English so that it's much easier for you.

[Theyasirahmad]

start with C language because it will enhance your logic building than go for advance java or python 

[Grasik]

I am thinking about Python. What can you tell me about it?

[vitek146]

Python should be your first programming language because you will quickly learn how to think like a programmer becouse Python is very readable and  is easy to learn.The learning curve is very gradual other languages can be quite steep.
Also PHP is a great entry point. More than 50 percent of the web is built using PHP,PHP is known for being easy to get started.

[suchi2591]

Start with C, then learn oops, and learn Java .
These are sufficient if you are not to build something language specific. I am also a software engineer. C/Java are sufficient if you want to grow in the area of computer science.
Bu the way, what is your moto behind leaning a language.?

[Andrea43Turner]

That is necessary for any cryptocurrency needs. It is difficult for beginners. Is there a simpler way?

[A Feeder]

You should choose either go to C or go to python that two is good to for us to use in language learn, because C give us more knowledge and understanding about programming and also will easier to learn any form of programming language and python is easier to learn and will allow you to achieve results way faster. So its up to you which the to of us you choose to use.