Depends on whether you prefer working on the front-end or back-end. For front-end I would suggest JavaScript as used to develop WebApps. For the back-end, you could look at Go - Google created it and many people have had lots of success with it, especially when scaling services.
Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
31–40 of 70 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#32Computer Science. Not programming, or this-or-that framework, but CS. Most EEs didn't get all that much of it in college, and it is very helpful. Languages come and go, but CS is forever.
Yes! If you want to learn a language or framework, pick one. It doesn't matter. In five years (or less) time it will all be some other language- and framework-du-jour.
I'm currently learning go, hopefully in 5 years there won't be another language du jour. Rust maybe but the problem space go is serving isn't all that crowded.
I hope... >.<
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#33"From scratch" is relative but I guess you mean just without a CMS.
My favorite stack for the last year or two has been CoffeeScript (and now ToffeeScript which is even better) and Node.js with good old ExpressJS.
I also think AngularJS is probably the best starting point for many web applications these days. So actually most of your efforts would be with AngularJS since the front end is often going to be much more complex than the back end.
The most convenient way to store data I think is in JSON files or with MongoDB or RethinkDB. Or maybe better take a look at a CRUD framework like https://npmjs.org/package/auto-crud . Again, 'from scratch' is a relative term and actually the farther you stay away from that the better probably. But of course no one, including me, can learn everything, so you have to pick a set of tools and become comfortable with them and that is subjective.
Node has the most advantageous module/package system out there (npm) with the support for semantic versioning and the sheer number of packages available in the registry (more than 41,000 at the moment).
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#34[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#35I'll throw my hat in here for learning Clojure. It's a modern Lisp that runs on the JVM, with a great community and awesome libraries. (For example, https://github.com/Engelberg/instaparse ) As others have mentioned, it all comes down to what you really want to do. I use Clojure both professionally (for web development, statistical computing/analytics software, natural language processing) and for fun on a daily basi…
I have similar feelings about Scala. Combines functional programming w/ a strong/static type system and all the benefits of the JVM. Very practical and fun which I found was not the case w/ Haskell and ML languages. And you couldn't ask for better timing, first day of class starts tomorrow[1]! (and in a month and a half, reactive programming[2]) 1 - https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun 2 - https://www.coursera.org…
One ding to Scala's practicality, it's such an enormous language that to use it in production with a large team almost requires a C++ level of discipline in deciding which elements of the language to use. It's a terrific language though and the fact that it runs on the JVM is a huge advantage.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#36Python(Django), Ruby(Rails), JavaScript(NodeJS), Go, Scala or Clojure.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#37I'll throw in my hat for PHP. There will be many people who will tell you to avoid PHP and I would have agreed if it wasn't for the Laravel framework. Laravel 4 is really amazing, it carries the simplicity and power of Ruby on Rails over to the PHP world. As a framework it covers most of your typical newbie problems out of the box (e.g. plugging security holes and organising your code) and you'll end up doing things in one line of code that you previously did in 5. Laravel also basically forces you to write really reusable code by using their Eloquent ORM system.
Though my favourite great thing about Laravel is that the community IS ON FIRE (in a good way). You'll get a response to most questions on Stack Overflow or the Laravel Forum within a few hours or even less sometimes. The core dev team are friendly and really available to help out. I found that when people use Laravel they don't just use it, they love it and become almost strangely obsessed with it. It's also pretty new so you can safely assume that your skills will not go out of date really soon or anything.
Take a look at this article for some more info: https://tutsplus.com/tutorial/why-laravel-is-taking-the-php-...
and this Stack Overflow question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13693795/to-swap-or-not-t...
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#38If you want to build stuff now and get a job, JS and the frontend will keep you employed for years. There are a bunch of connected fields spanning across a ton of tangential disciplines both artistic and programming and lots of space to find a niche that makes you happy.
If you want to take the hard road, improve yourself as a programmer, Clojure and Machine Learning. Just be aware that you won't get easy career options for 3-5 years if ever. I'm a believer but history is not on the side of the better is better lispers.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#39I'll throw my hat in here for learning Clojure. It's a modern Lisp that runs on the JVM, with a great community and awesome libraries. (For example, https://github.com/Engelberg/instaparse ) As others have mentioned, it all comes down to what you really want to do. I use Clojure both professionally (for web development, statistical computing/analytics software, natural language processing) and for fun on a daily basi…
My weapon of choice is Clojure and I don't really agree with this post. There is a serious lack of tutorials and guides to get basic things going, the documentation is all-around horrible, and in general, Clojure is a very difficult language to get started with, though it certainly has improved immensely over the past year and it is rewarding once you get past the initial humps and start to really grok it. Clojure is philosophically, a beautiful language, but you have to work very hard to get to that point. And may the programming gods have mercy on his soul if he prefers using Windows.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?
#40I'll throw my hat in here for learning Clojure. It's a modern Lisp that runs on the JVM, with a great community and awesome libraries. (For example, https://github.com/Engelberg/instaparse ) As others have mentioned, it all comes down to what you really want to do. I use Clojure both professionally (for web development, statistical computing/analytics software, natural language processing) and for fun on a daily basi…
My weapon of choice is Clojure and I don't really agree with this post. There is a serious lack of tutorials and guides to get basic things going, the documentation is all-around horrible, and in general, Clojure is a very difficult language to get started with, though it certainly has improved immensely over the past year and it is rewarding once you get past the initial humps and start to really grok it. Clojure is…
How do you suggest that one should get past the initial hardships in learning clojure, assuming one is willing to put the needed effort? I've always wanted to learn a lisp and clojure seemed good, but couldn't find a good tutorial for lisp beginners.