Ask HN: Is Java worth learning?

Woops read the wrong parent comment. Ignore me :).

I think every one should learn at least 3 different types of languages (my recommendation for each below):

- Interpreted: Current choice is Python, pretty much hands down undisputed. Personally there is a lot to dislike about Python (who doesn't like 24 byte integers?) but that's how things are.

- Compiled (VM based): My choice here is C# instead of Java or Go because (1) C# is now available cross platform and more "free-er" than Java (2) its much more upto date in virtually every respect (3) it has great tooling and rich library to speed up the development (4) its not owned by Oracle and it doesn't ship with spammy browser toolbar to unsuspecting users (5) unlike Go, folks working on C# are not stuck in excessive minimalism. Almost exact opposite, they want C# to have good features from every other language out there with massive new releases each year. That's great - at least for me - because I've access to everything from very powerful lambdas to parallel paradigms to async features, when I need them.

- Compiled (direct to metal): I'd like to chose Rust in future but I'm going to recommend C++ instead for now. If you are working on pretty much anything at the deep end of the computer science including OS kernels, writing your own compilers, building runtimes of variety of tools like TensorFlow, graphics engines, physics engine, embedded libraries etc - then you need to learn C++.

Having said that, if your purpose is to just get job go with Python and Java. These are #1 and #2 languages according to IEEE Spectrum in job postings:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-the-top-program...

I'd say going with more than one language will just confuse beginner. I've seen many students struggle with the language soup schools cook for them.

> It is only good for getting jobs.

Beginner will either want a job or write some simple apps. "enlightening" languages are worthless for them.

It can't hurt to learn Java. There's a huge amount of Java code out there, and there are lots of Java jobs. It has a future, though the hype wore off it a long time ago.

That said, I can't say I particularly like Java, or find it fulfilling or interesting in the same way I like elegant and clever C++, or even Python. It's had all the sharp edges filed down, making it a pedestrian and mundane language. But that's of course why a lot of companies use it; it's a known quantity which you can have a team of people work with and get a working result in a planned timeframe. On the downside, there are too many people who only ever developed with Java, and can only think about design within the constrained limits of what Java allows, i.e. basic OOP. Definitely learn more than one language so you have a wider appreciation for what's possible.

Personally, I'd recommend Python 3 as a first language to get started with today. You can rapidly get started doing interesting stuff with a minimum of fuss and vastly less unnecessary verbosity than Java. It's also less constraining with regard to design; it doesn't force the use of classes and OOP like Java, so you can experiment with different ways of doing things.