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Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

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31–40 of 94 posts

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#31
post #24

Clojure.

I am learning Clojure because I know lots of "traditional" languages and want to stretch my brain in new ways. I am also interested in new ways to write parallel programs, which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Clojure scores well on these two criteria. I chose Clojure over Scala and Haskell, because I believe in dynamic typing over static typing. This is probably more an issue of tase than anything and I also have a high opinion of those static languages. I am very impressed with Rich Hickey's design sensibility and his goals for Clojure align well with my own.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#35

PHP

Rather surprising to see PHP so high here since I rarely see PHP-related submissions on HN. How do people learn it? I've found that the best thing for me was finding StumbleUpon and reading up as much as I could about best practices in PHP and programming in general. Now I force myself to try a different language for my own projects to get away from PHP as a "comfort zone".

I'm a bit shocked to see any significant popularity here, as it seems to be a language most hackers avoid. I'd like to know why people are interested in the languages they're learning - not just PHP.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#36
I'm learning Scala for the following three reasons (in increasing order of importance.) These just reflect my current needs, not a prescription for other people, and all three revolve around my need to add a practical language to my repertoire to reduce my usage of C++ and Java.

3. I decided to learn a language I could use on the Java platform using Java APIs, rather than on the _nix C platform using C APIs. Partly this is a matter of wanting to escape C's shortcomings; partly it's because I have my eye on a couple of upcoming projects at my company for which the Java libraries will be extremely helpful.

2. I want to learn a language that will allow me to use functional idioms and help me learn a more functional style, yet allow me to get the job done even when my functional-fu falls short. I don't want to learn a language that expands my mind but then becomes a fond memory. I hope that for many years to come Scala will be the first language I reach for when I need to get something done on the Java platform.

1. I want to master a modern yet practical language with a strong static type system. I don't do much programming that calls for a dynamic language, and I'm pretty satisfied with Python. I write a lot of code in C++; C++ and Java are the only statically typed languages that I have really mastered, and I'm dissatisfied with both of them.

Runners-up:

Clojure: not statically typed. Maybe my next language after Scala -- I really enjoyed using Common Lisp but hated the library situation.

O'Caml: great for the _nix C platform, but not for Java. Also possibly too pure to be a "go-to" language (heh.)

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#40
post #24

Clojure.

Just wanted to say it's hard. I'm definitely not the best programmer, truth be told I haven't even programmed full time for a while, but switching from java to clojure took me at least half a year.

I'm in the middle of my first (small) full app though, and I can tell it will be worth it. With java there was a wall in productivity I simply could not brake. I wrote pieces of code sometimes as fast as I could type (similar alterations to existing software), but still I felt I did the same thing over and over again. Now I'm at the first iteration of my framework and I can already tell a lot of the code I write won't be written again.

Just an example: one of the first things I did was to brake the old web convention of separating the app into writing html and processing requests. Most of the links I write now, including forms, have the action code right there. Something like (pseudocode):

  html_button("Delete item", {
    delete_item(value); 
    return list_items();});
I'm not saying it's the way to go with a webapp, only how easy it is to experiment with different paradigms.
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