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If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

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Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#61
post #42

Each time one of these "surveys" comes up I am surprised by the number of Python vs Ruby responses. It seems to always be 3 to 1 in favor of Python while I had thought the usage was more like 50/50.

Ruby is disproportionately common in web development, and web developers are disproportionately visible on the web.

Anecdotally, I don't personally know anybody using Ruby that isn't at least primarily a web developer, either, but I know several Python users.

Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#62
post #37

java, c++, javascript you can do everything.

Except maintain anything you just wrote.

so here I have a great IDE, lots of static analysis, continuous integration, automatic dependency management etc... people who say you can't maintain java don't know how to code in it, after 13 years it's clear to me why it's still popular.

Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#63
post #43
post #37

java, c++, javascript you can do everything.

Actually I don't think you can do everything in those 3 languages, you should try some functional programming and see the difference by yourself. Sure, all languages are turing equivalent, but some of things that are easy to write in e.g. lisp would be really painful to do in c++/java. Also none of them is suitable for replacing e.g. bash as a scripting language.

give me one example of something I can't do. of course I've done functional programming and sometimes it's nice, but I don't see it as the big advantage many people do. Algorithms and engineering are sometimes hard, actually programming is rarely the difficulty in any project.

Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#64

Three is a bad number. Three is the minimum required to do your job, so doesn't let you choose any cool languages that blow your mind and make you a better programmer. - you need to know C. All your infrastructure and fundamental libraries are built in C. If you can't read the code or fix bugs in your infrastructure, you need to hire somebody else who can. (N.B. if you work in an environment where all your infrastruc…

> you need to know Javascript

You need to know javascript. There are a lot of industries where you can live without it. It certainly doesn't make it onto my top three.

Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#65
post #64

Three is a bad number. Three is the minimum required to do your job, so doesn't let you choose any cool languages that blow your mind and make you a better programmer. - you need to know C. All your infrastructure and fundamental libraries are built in C. If you can't read the code or fix bugs in your infrastructure, you need to hire somebody else who can. (N.B. if you work in an environment where all your infrastruc…

> you need to know Javascript You need to know javascript. There are a lot of industries where you can live without it. It certainly doesn't make it onto my top three.

Name one. I'm willing to bet you've got your head in the sand. I work in the embedded industry. A significant minority of these devices are shipping with web servers on board for command & control. The price difference between an 8 and 32 bit micro is dropping quickly.

So you might be able to get away without knowing Javascript, but you'll need somebody in your company who does, so my original comment stands.

Re: If you could only learn three programming languages, which would you choose?

#66
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woosh? :) Btw, how do I see the current tally?

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgDNp1TM4umedC0zRkR...

How about posting a link to the form's summary page instead?
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