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Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

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Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#1

Post by ritchiea »

Right now I use Ruby & Javascript the most because I have been working in startups where many companies use Rails. In undergrad I was exposed to Java and Haskell. I have taken an interest in Clojure because it seems like the most pragmatic Lisp at the moment and C because it is so ubiquitous.

How did you get started with the programming languages you use? I'm particularly interested in answers about languages that aren't insanely popular right now (e.g. Scala, Erlang, Lua, OCaml not Python, Javascript, Obj-C) since it's more interesting to hear why you value a language with low adoption than it is to hear "I use Ruby because the community is strong" or "I write Obj-C because I want to develop for iOS" (which are legitimate answers but don't tell us anything about the programming language itself). Was there a particular project that got you started? And/or did you discover something in particular about that language which made you curious?

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#5

Post by mrmekon »

I was in my university's co-op program, but didn't apply for any jobs. A couple of weeks after the interview period ended, a representative from the school's co-op program called me and said they had a company that was desperate for a co-op, didn't find any who were qualified during the interview process, and my résumé was the only one they could find that listed experience with C.

I took the job. Embedded systems, primarily extremely resource-limited microcontrollers. It was beyond anything they could teach a student on the job, so they really did need someone who already knew the language. That was apparently a difficult skill to find among students in 2003.

10 years and 5 positions later, all of my work has been in C, and I regret nothing. It's a practical career choice: the jobs are plentiful and the competition is not. Also, it's the best language :P

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#6

Post by atmosx »

mrmekon wrote: post #5

I was in my university's co-op program, but didn't apply for any jobs. A couple of weeks after the interview period ended, a representative from the school's co-op program called me and said they had a company that was desperate for a co-op, didn't find any who were qualified during the interview process, and my résumé was the only one they could find that listed experience with C. I took the job. Embedded systems, p…

The best language... to do what? ;-)

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#7

Post by sanxiyn »

I started my programming with BASIC, Pascal, and C. I started on Perl to hack on UseModWiki. I started on Python to hack on MoinMoin. I started on PHP to hack on a wiki engine you probably haven't heard of. In general, I started on a language because an application I use and I want to modify was written in that language.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#8

Post by ajtaylor »

I got started programming back in 1995. After a few months of crafting HTML pages using MS Word, and learning to write macros to help automate it, I wanted something more interesting. My first foray into true programming was writing perl CGI programs for email forms and it took off from there. 18 years later, I am a full stack developer specialising in Perl.

My first truly "big" project was writing the backend for the original thinkstock.com. I had never done anything on that scale before, but I jumped in with both feel and did a decent job (or so the guys who took over after me said).

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#9

Post by eranation »

Language official website and documentation. "Language name" tutorial in Google, stack overflow, the top rated book on it in Amazon, in this order. My used languages are Scala, Kotlin, Java, Clojure, JavaScript, typescript, Ruby, Python, Nimrod, Haskell and Go, not particularly in that order (some are just for curiosity). For general programming education, any of the mooc CS 101 in coursera, udacity, edx

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started with the programming languages you use?

#10

Post by madhouse »

I wanted to learn a functional language, because I was frustrated with C, and none of the OO languages I could use at the time (C++, Java or Python. These were the languages used at work, so I was restricted to these) filled me with confidence. So I went looking, found Haskell and the "Learn You a Haskell (for Great good)" book, skimmed through it, loved it, bought it, studied it for months. But I never did anything with Haskell, it's a great language, but I never found a task I could do with it, to experiment and deepen my knowledge.

At the same time, I've always been fond of Lisp (due to Emacs, Sawfish and partly GIMP-Fu I believe), and one day, reading HN, I came across Clojure. A functional Lisp on the JVM, with great interop, and strong support for concurrency. Hell yes! I toyed around with it too, but shelved it soon after, until I found a problem I could solve with it. And solve I did. The sheer beauty of the language still mesmerises me. It's insanely powerful, yet concise and easy to understand.

The thing that got me hooked into Clojure was that I could express myself a lot easier and a lot better with it, than in any other language I worked with before (and I worked with a lot of languages in the past). Everything else (core.logic, core.async, overtone, riemann, pedestal and ClojureScript) is just an added bonus.

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