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Poll: Which 3 languages would you learn

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Which 3 languages would you learn

#24

Post by mahmud »

Bliss, Sisal, Mercury, ECLiPSe, Esterel.

Bliss is Wulf's baby, and I have the book; sick compiler. Purely for the sake of idol-worship.

Sisal, very influential language. FP for scientific computing, high performance. Would love to implement it.

Mercury .. I never really got logic programming all that well, besides some elementary prolog. Would love to explore the domain further but hindered by the opaque works that spill over from logic.

ECLiPSe is a constraint-logic programming package. Never used a standalone CLP system before. Only via Mozart/Oz, AliceML and Common Lisp (via Screamer)

Esterel is a language for reactive programming: think real-time and embedded devices. I vaguely know the language (1-2 weeks) but I haven't got the theoretical backbone to tackle it fully. Need to study temporal logics, brush up on process algebra, and perhaps even take up some discrete event simulation before I can fully grok it.

Re: Poll: Which 3 languages would you learn

#29

Post by irahul »

Python, C, Javascript

I am assuming you aren't talking about learning 3 new languages, but rather, 3 languages if you are to learn only 3.

Python - A practical and elegant language. It supports both one-off, throw-away scripts and large applications. It has native libraries or bindings for majority of tasks. You can do procedural programming, object oriented programming, some FP, state machines....

Besides getting things done, it's a beautiful language for exploratory programming(IPython, concise language, slime...). It has some good meta-programming and reflective features. A lot of literature is available on advanced python - I watched Alex Martelli's Google talk on design patterns and I whole heartedly recommend it.

The whole ecosystem: * Superb documentation * Backed by big companies * Good tooling - sphinx, App Engine, pip, virtualenv * Abundant, battle tested libraries * Helpful community

makes it a good choice.

C - Insanely fast, lot of existing software and libraries written in it. Used for implementing high performance servers, used for browser, kernels... You can contribute to your favorite project viz. chromium(is actually c++), kernel, python, ruby; you can rewrite slow parts of your Python application in C.

People not conversant in C often say things pertaining to C being verbose. That's far from truth; C is in fact a very terse language. It's the standard library and lack of high level data structure that got it this incorrect reputation. The libraries might seem lacking but it's only the standard library that is small. Third party libraries are abundant and should be used, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Javascript - It would be a practical choice to complete the stack. Python/C for backend/desktop apps, Javascript for client side. With V8 and node.js, Javascript has sneaked in to the backend. Coffeescript takes out the ugliness out of Javascript, if the language quirks are bothering you.

Web is buzzing with activity now-a-days, and performant & conformant Javascript implementations has partly ridden the wave, partly triggered the wave.

If you are playing on web's playground, you should learn this language. If you aren't playing on the web, you should consider it. It's a lot of fun, and who knows, Google might acquire your startup for $ 6 billion. Even if you aren't after the money, the web is still a superb platform for getting your products out to a big audience. It's rewarding and a learning experience.

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