What's the best programming language for a hobbyist? • Hacker News Board

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#21

Post by RutZap » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 8:09 PM UTC

inetsee wrote: post #17

I'm going to swim against the tide here and suggest that you might want to go back and play with Pascal some more. Pascal was the third programming language I learned (after machine language and Algol) and after all these years (including decades of working professionally with C, C++ and Ada) Pascal is still the language I have the fondest memories of. I loved it because it was simple and elegant and I could get my m…

Thank you for suggesting SICP... It seems pretty good and it will definitely help me see programming from a better place.

As for Pascal... it's been roughly 9 years since I last wrote something in it. You definitely made me want to "give it a ride", for old times sake :D

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#22

Post by RutZap » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 8:15 PM UTC

fmw wrote: post #10

Beware of people suggesting their personal favorite language. There are many languages worth knowing. My personal favorite is the Lisp family and particularly Clojure. Pick up a book like SICP or any of the Clojure books. It can really give you a new perspective. I suggest buying the Seven Languages book by Bruce Tate. There is no wrong choice, because learning any language will make you better.

I'll definitely take a look into a Lisp language. I guess it will also make me learn some maths (lambda calculus) (one can never know too much math :D)

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#23

Post by _Dude_ » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 8:57 PM UTC

C# - it just keeps constantly evolving. Supports dynamic/static, functional/imperative, OOP and language-integrated asynchronous programming models. It gives you a nice balance between performance and features like introspection. Also ReSharper + Visual Studio will give you the best IDE in the world.

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#24

Post by _Dude_ » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 9:00 PM UTC

RutZap wrote: post #20

mikecane wrote: post #7

Another point to consider: Would you want to be able to easily show off what you created? Then you should likely do HTML5/CSS/JavaScript so you could put it on your phone. Who knows? Maybe you will come up with an app idea that's commercial and you'd be set.

I do work with these everyday (JS HTML CSS) but the JS I write is basic and can't really be considered proper JS (in my opinion). I think you are right and I could give it a go... probably do a Win8 App and get the grips on JavaScript and then move towards a functional language (like Haskell or Lisp as someone else suggested).

This will be useful then: http://wtfjs.com

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#25

Post by _Dude_ » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 9:03 PM UTC

DoritosMan wrote: post #18

ishbits wrote: post #3

What's your hobby? If web development I'd look at Python, Ruby or JavaScript. If systems type stuff then Python, Perl or C. If you wanna be a hobby kernel hacker then C. If games, well. I don't know.

For games, I would recommend C++, C#, or Java. They have good libraries for games already created. C++: SFML and SDL C#: OpenTK and XNA Java: LWJGL and Slick (Which uses LWJGL)

C# - MonoGame (supports iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 8 Metro - more to come).

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#26

Post by _Dude_ » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 9:09 PM UTC

_Dude_ wrote: post #23

C# - it just keeps constantly evolving. Supports dynamic/static, functional/imperative, OOP and language-integrated asynchronous programming models. It gives you a nice balance between performance and features like introspection. Also ReSharper + Visual Studio will give you the best IDE in the world.

Python could be a decent choice as well:

http://blog.udacity.com/2012/05/learning-to-program-why-pyth...

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#27

Post by a_bonobo » Fri, Jan 25, 2013, 12:46 AM UTC

RutZap wrote: post #21

inetsee wrote: post #17

I'm going to swim against the tide here and suggest that you might want to go back and play with Pascal some more. Pascal was the third programming language I learned (after machine language and Algol) and after all these years (including decades of working professionally with C, C++ and Ada) Pascal is still the language I have the fondest memories of. I loved it because it was simple and elegant and I could get my m…

Thank you for suggesting SICP... It seems pretty good and it will definitely help me see programming from a better place. As for Pascal... it's been roughly 9 years since I last wrote something in it. You definitely made me want to "give it a ride", for old times sake :D

There are different versions of SICP around, depending on what you use for your reading pleasure:

As mobi for Kindle: https://github.com/twcamper/sicp-kindle

As ePub for iPad/Nook (I think?): https://github.com/ieure/sicp

As PDF for whatever reason: http://sicpebook.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sicp.pdf

And of course, the original HTML for the browser of your choice: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

Note: Especially the epub and mobi version have different forks floating around so maybe there are better links for these, anyone got anything?

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#28

Post by RutZap » Fri, Jan 25, 2013, 9:08 AM UTC

_Dude_ wrote: post #24

RutZap wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do work with these everyday (JS HTML CSS) but the JS I write is basic and can't really be considered proper JS (in my opinion). I think you are right and I could give it a go... probably do a Win8 App and get the grips on JavaScript and then move towards a functional language (like Haskell or Lisp as someone else suggested).

This will be useful then: http://wtfjs.com

:-) it reminds me of this: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#29

Post by RutZap » Fri, Jan 25, 2013, 9:15 AM UTC

_Dude_ wrote: post #25

DoritosMan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For games, I would recommend C++, C#, or Java. They have good libraries for games already created. C++: SFML and SDL C#: OpenTK and XNA Java: LWJGL and Slick (Which uses LWJGL)

C# - MonoGame (supports iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 8 Metro - more to come).

This seems to be awesome. I used XNA to build a Xbox 360 game for my dissertation. I really enjoyed working with XNA and this will allow me to build something that can run on mobile devices and Win8... awesome!

I guess games are the best choice... I can use all those cool algorithms that I've learned a long time ago (which don't really come as useful in web development) and at the end of the day I have a game which I can publish and who knows.. maybe make some beer money :D

Thank you for this!

Re: What's the best programming language for a hobbyist?

#30

Post by Someone » Sat, Jan 26, 2013, 8:58 AM UTC

You write "I want to learn a new programming language, or continue learning one I started in school, something that will compensate for the lack of algorithms in my work"

If that is all you want, almost any language will do. Maybe, you want to take on a new one every month or so for a while to get a broader view on what's out there. Your experience, it seems, is only with Algol :-), so I would pick something different like lisp, Haskell or Forth.

Having said that, I think you should first think more about whether there is a deeper reason why you want to program. It might not even be the programming itself, but the learning itself. If so, reading about programming languages (or maybe even on computing history, physics, linguistics, history,...) can be a better idea. On the other hand, if, in the back of your head, you have this idea to write something to solve problem X, that could direct you in your choice of language.

In other words: what is your itch?