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What is the best general purpose language that I can learn.
I am interested in coding and I enjoy doing it. #computer #programming #coding
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5 answers
Updated
Dexter’s Answer
Hi Jonathan,
I think it really depends on what kind of coding you enjoy.
If you're interested in front-end web development, the language to learn is JavaScript. It is ubiquitous and if you want to do anything fancy on the front-end, it's required knowledge.
If you're interested in back-end web development, the language of choice is PHP. God I hate PHP due to it's quirks and limitations, but because of Wordpress and Mediawiki, PHP is as popular as ever.
If you're interested in Apple-anything, I would say you should learn Swift and Objective C. These languages will allow you to program for iOS and MacOS, and you'll be making apps in no time.
If you're interested in soul suffocating enterprise apps, Java would be the language of choice.
These answers are accurate for now, but dominant programming languages change, so this list might not be accurate in a couple of years. That's the fun part about being a programmer though, it's good to be language agnostic and keep learning new things as you come across new challenges.
Good luck!
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Dexter
I think it really depends on what kind of coding you enjoy.
If you're interested in front-end web development, the language to learn is JavaScript. It is ubiquitous and if you want to do anything fancy on the front-end, it's required knowledge.
If you're interested in back-end web development, the language of choice is PHP. God I hate PHP due to it's quirks and limitations, but because of Wordpress and Mediawiki, PHP is as popular as ever.
If you're interested in Apple-anything, I would say you should learn Swift and Objective C. These languages will allow you to program for iOS and MacOS, and you'll be making apps in no time.
If you're interested in soul suffocating enterprise apps, Java would be the language of choice.
These answers are accurate for now, but dominant programming languages change, so this list might not be accurate in a couple of years. That's the fun part about being a programmer though, it's good to be language agnostic and keep learning new things as you come across new challenges.
Good luck!
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Dexter
Thank you! Objective C seems like an interesting language to learn so ill look into that one.
Jonathan
Awesome! I'm glad you found the answer helpful Jonathan!
Dexter Arver
Updated
Fred’s Answer
None.
Don't think about becoming an expert at one language, because if you do, when that language becomes obsolete (and it will), you will too. Focus on learning good programming principles and practices. I would much rather have someone on my team who writes clean, easy to read, functional code than someone who knows all the ins-and-outs of a language and uses quirks of the language to accomplish their goals. Some day, I will have to look at that code and figure out what the heck they were doing.
So try to learn and apply the principles to whatever language you write. After all, a loop is a loop no matter the language, it's just a question of syntax.
Don't think about becoming an expert at one language, because if you do, when that language becomes obsolete (and it will), you will too. Focus on learning good programming principles and practices. I would much rather have someone on my team who writes clean, easy to read, functional code than someone who knows all the ins-and-outs of a language and uses quirks of the language to accomplish their goals. Some day, I will have to look at that code and figure out what the heck they were doing.
So try to learn and apply the principles to whatever language you write. After all, a loop is a loop no matter the language, it's just a question of syntax.
Updated
Tony’s Answer
If you learn one programming language, it becomes very easy to learn other languages, as they mostly have the same concepts. I started out learning FORTRAN and COBOL, then PASCAL, then BASIC, and with those four could handle all of my high school and college work. After graduating from College, I had to learn Assembler and PL/X. Then later had to learn C and Java. Lately, I use PHP, Python and JavaScript.
Of these, I suggest Python. Here are my reasons:
a) you will learn all of the basics -- loops, if-then-else logic, setting and checking variables, etc.
b) you can install Python on Windows, Mac or Linux, so whatever platform you have available to you, you can install Python for free and start writing programs
c) I have created games with Python, written scripts that do quick tasks, developed websites, and ran Machine Learning/Data Analytics to crunch data for work, so it is general purpose in a variety of ways.
Of these, I suggest Python. Here are my reasons:
a) you will learn all of the basics -- loops, if-then-else logic, setting and checking variables, etc.
b) you can install Python on Windows, Mac or Linux, so whatever platform you have available to you, you can install Python for free and start writing programs
c) I have created games with Python, written scripts that do quick tasks, developed websites, and ran Machine Learning/Data Analytics to crunch data for work, so it is general purpose in a variety of ways.
Updated
Peter’s Answer
It is really depends on what you want to do with the language. If you gonna play with IOS/Apple device, you will need to learn swift/objective-c, if you plan to play with android, then java would be the answer. If you want to play with windows, .net/c# would be good. for general learning, python and go are two excellent languages to start with. with OS hacking, then you need "c". If you're very logical in nature, then the language is a tool to help you get things done. if you still need help with logical thinking, then I would try language that will assist that development. In that case, python (version 3) works. hope that help
Updated
Keith’s Answer
Hello, In my industry of Industrial IT we have a strong need for PYTHON programmers. Many of our systems are controlled by PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) these interfaces are using PYTHON as their base language. Since many systems manipulate and read data from various data sources, any type of database command coding would also be of use to you. Myself, I learned SQL coding to read/write data out of and into databases.
In a nutshell, there is not one language (PHP, JAVA, C++, VB, VC, etc) for every condition you may encounter, so determine the area that interests you and discover the coding required and start now learning it. The good thing is, once you learn one, you can understand and learn others a bit easier.
Good luck on your IT journey, it will be a fun ride!!
In a nutshell, there is not one language (PHP, JAVA, C++, VB, VC, etc) for every condition you may encounter, so determine the area that interests you and discover the coding required and start now learning it. The good thing is, once you learn one, you can understand and learn others a bit easier.
Good luck on your IT journey, it will be a fun ride!!