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Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

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Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#221

Post by jemeshsu »

dustingetz wrote: post #195
drostie wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind my asking, as a Python person, how did you learn Clojure? I'm mostly programming in Python and JavaScript today, and I want to learn Clojure, but I keep seeing these very strange talks. I don't know how to articulate it, really. My best metaphor is, it feels a little like I wanted to go out and learn about Catholicism and they said, "oh, that's easy, we'll just have you sit in on a bunch of confessi…

if you just wanna get a feel for clojure without getting too serious - here's a demo of livecoding in overtone - http://vimeo.com/22798433 overtone comes with a stock emacs config that will get you livecoding in no time. after that, Joy of Clojure by Fogus. (edit: fwiw i have had no trouble with this book even as my first lisp, but i've been coding in a functional style for about 6 months before clojure)

I find Practical Clojure and Clojure in Action easier for beginners. The Joy of Clojure is a little advanced suitable if you already know Lisp. All 3 are good books.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#222

Post by InclinedPlane »

wmoxam wrote: post #192
InclinedPlane wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python is rapidly replacing ruby as the de facto scripting language for automation. It's also starting to replace Java as the language of choice for teaching programming and CS.

I never knew ruby was ever considered the "de facto language for automation". Maybe you are thinking of perl?

I was commenting on the popularity of Python in absolute terms, not necessarily in the context of a relationship with Ruby.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#224

Post by MartinCron »

meow wrote: post #113
simonsarris wrote: post #16

C# really feels like the most mature language that I've ever dealt with. Writing it feels clear, if something is wrong the debugger is very clear. The number of features that are there is incredible (especially post C# 2.0 when they added generics). Properties are delightful. How do you convert to a string? Convert.ToString(). How about an integer? Knowing only that one, it's what you'd expect! I also picked JavaScri…

Writing C# code in Visual Studio feels almost like telepathy. Intellisense is so good that, it nearly writes 30-40% of total code.

If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to try ReSharper. The automated refactoring and static analysis tools are best described as "pair programming with a genius robot".

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#226

Post by bullseye »

meow wrote: post #113
simonsarris wrote: post #16

C# really feels like the most mature language that I've ever dealt with. Writing it feels clear, if something is wrong the debugger is very clear. The number of features that are there is incredible (especially post C# 2.0 when they added generics). Properties are delightful. How do you convert to a string? Convert.ToString(). How about an integer? Knowing only that one, it's what you'd expect! I also picked JavaScri…

Writing C# code in Visual Studio feels almost like telepathy. Intellisense is so good that, it nearly writes 30-40% of total code.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, that is my single biggest problem with being a C# developer. Sounds counter-intuitive, right?

Each time I dive into another language, I feel handcuffed because I don't have the features and options that I get from Visual Studio. Once the "new language smell" has worn off, I find myself wishing for faster ways to develop sections of code. I miss instant code compilation and validation. The ability to hop around sections of code, immediately find all references, or catch compile errors at a glance are all things I take for granted until they aren't there. And don't even get me started on ReSharper. Those guys at JetBrains are glorified drug dealers and I am one very hooked addict.

All that said, it makes it very difficult for other languages to gain traction with me. At times, the software adventurer in me gets frustrated about this, but the pragmatic side of my personality (the one that likes food and a house) prevents me from giving up all those benefits.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#227

Post by pjmlp »

simonsarris wrote: post #16

C# really feels like the most mature language that I've ever dealt with. Writing it feels clear, if something is wrong the debugger is very clear. The number of features that are there is incredible (especially post C# 2.0 when they added generics). Properties are delightful. How do you convert to a string? Convert.ToString(). How about an integer? Knowing only that one, it's what you'd expect! I also picked JavaScri…

I just wish Microsoft would improve AOT compilation with NGen, or even better, provide native compilation as they do in Singularity with Bartok.

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#228

Post by masklinn »

hackinthebochs wrote: post #173
masklinn wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No return value needed (compiles down to an Action I think) Which is an other crufty thing in C#: because Void/() is not a type (inherited from Java), it needs to have both `Func ` and `Action ` in order to handle functions-with-a-return-value and functions-without-a-return-value.

This is true, but its mostly transparent unless you're doing something particularly ugly.

Like trying to take one of these as parameter or return it?

Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?

#229

Post by mquander »

hackinthebochs wrote: post #50
simonsarris wrote: post #16

C# really feels like the most mature language that I've ever dealt with. Writing it feels clear, if something is wrong the debugger is very clear. The number of features that are there is incredible (especially post C# 2.0 when they added generics). Properties are delightful. How do you convert to a string? Convert.ToString(). How about an integer? Knowing only that one, it's what you'd expect! I also picked JavaScri…

Definitely agree with you on C#. It feels like this is what a standard, mature, widespread language should be. There are other languages that are better for specific tasks, but for the general programming language, C# really hits the sweet spot in terms of features, expressability, readability, and environment. This is the language that Java should have been--could have been. Also, I dread getting asked on my next in…

C# programmer for a couple years, and I think C# is OK (it's definitely way ahead of Java or C++) but I've definitely got a big list of things I don't like about it. The top of it reads:

- Events and properties aren't first-class, which is lame. I can't even easily get the "get" or "set" method of a property without either using reflection or making a wrapper lambda.

- No syntax sugar for tuples.

- No syntax sugar for destructuring anything. Come on now.

- The type system has big holes. For example, I still can't specify class Something where T : new(T) (i.e. where a copy constructor exists on T.) And I can't specify class Something where T : /* is a numeric type */.

- It would be nice if there were type inference on more things, like property and field types.

- All reference types are nullable which sucks.

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