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Thread: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

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  1. #1
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    Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    I'm in the process of teaching myself C# using a For Dummies book. As far as linux is concerned, am I on the right track? Is there a simpler language I should learn first? I'm completely green, so recommendations, tips, software, any and all advice is helpful!

    I want to be able to write my own terminal-based software, if that helps you in your response.

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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

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  3. #3
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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    It completely depends on what you want to do. I've never had a reason to learn C#, all I know about it is that it was made by Microsoft.

    C++ is great if you want speed. I often use it with curses to make Dwarf Fortress like games (that is, they only use ascii art in the terminal. This is also how you would make something like vi). You can do just about anything you want with C/C++. Literally anything if you do some assembly and intermediate language stuff to what the compiler spits out. It's appropriate for 2D interfaces with libraries like SDL, or 3D using something like Ogre.

    Python is great if you want an easy language, or if you want to make 3D games using Blender. It's a great language both for learning about programming and for making software. If you want to automate system stuff, do complicated operations on lots of text files, etc., you should learn bash scripting.
    Last edited by howefield; February 6th, 2012 at 01:27 AM. Reason: removed the rubbish.

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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    The most common programming languages for Ubuntu and GNU/Linux generally are C and Python. Both are good general purpose languages for terminal-based software. C lends itself better to low-level "system" programming. Python is a higher-level object-oriented language and coding can be easier and more productive.

    I'd suggest you try both of these two and also learn some basic Bash scripting, which often comes in handy.

  5. #5
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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    Much appreciated! Your insight is quite helpful, all of you.

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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    I'll also mention that C++ gets some pretty heavy use as well. It's a little bit more flexible than C IMO (mainly it lets you program with classes, which can be a huge time-saver for certain types of program), but it also offers you that same low-level access that C has.

    C# does get used for some Linux programs. Mono, the open-source version of Microsoft's .NET framework, is reasonably stable, and gets used in programs like Gnome-Do and Banshee. So if you want to stick with C# you can. It's nowhere near as common in the Linux world as Python, C, or C++, but it's out there.

    If you're very comfortable with one language (and its libraries) then you might choose to use that language for most tasks, regardless of what language the rest of the world might consider "best-suited" for the task.

    If you're writing GUI application then C++, Python, or C# might be the best bets. If it's some low-level kernel module, C is probably the way to go.

    Ultimately the choice of "what's the best language" depends more on you, the programmer, and what the program you're writing is.
    GCS/O d+(-@) s: a-->? C(++) UL P+ L+++@ E@
    W++$ N++ !o K++ w(++) !O M(-) !V PS+(++)
    PE-() Y+ PGP++ t++(+++@)* 5++ X++@ R+++@
    tv+ b++(+++) DI++ D+ G+ e++>++++ h- r y?

  7. #7
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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    Quote Originally Posted by r-senior View Post
    The most common programming languages for Ubuntu and GNU/Linux generally are C and Python. Both are good general purpose languages for terminal-based software. C lends itself better to low-level "system" programming. Python is a higher-level object-oriented language and coding can be easier and more productive.

    I'd suggest you try both of these two and also learn some basic Bash scripting, which often comes in handy.
    Personally, i think C, although historically valuable, is just that... Old history. My suggestion is to learn C++ since it is widely supported by compilers and is relatively easy as far as syntax and code structure go...

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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    Okay, I'm going to defend one point and apologize for one point, then I'm going to let this die.

    Quote Originally Posted by Simian Man
    If you think Java is "an enormous language", then you know nothing about programming languages.
    Okay, my mistake. The Java language is, as you say, of quite reasonable size. It's probably... oh, 1.5x to twice as "big" as C, syntactically speaking. But much like C, you can't really claim to write Java unless you're familiar with at least a subset of the standard library. And very unlike C, the part of Java's standard library that you need to know to not be totally useless as a programmer is pretty darn big.

    Don't create a false impression. C# was created by Microsoft, but is is an open standard and the Mono implementation is open source, mature and very good.
    My mistake again. I'm remembering when Mono was incomplete and unstable, wasn't aware how much had changed.

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    Re: Best Coding Language for programming Linux apps

    Quote Originally Posted by Rcihard Arnold View Post
    Personally, i think C, although historically valuable, is just that... Old history. My suggestion is to learn C++ since it is widely supported by compilers and is relatively easy as far as syntax and code structure go...
    C is surprisingly important for a lot of things. If you ever work with embedded systems you can't get away from it. The Linux kernel is written in C. And C has been popular enough over the years that it has enormous quantities of third-party libraries that will do pretty much anything you could want to do from high-performance mathematics to graphics to neural networks to file i/o. And the beauty is that you can use those C libraries *inside* C++ programs, provided you know how to write and use C code.

    I would not suggest C as a starting language for anyone, but it is good to learn at some point because if you do enough programming you will run into it eventually.
    GCS/O d+(-@) s: a-->? C(++) UL P+ L+++@ E@
    W++$ N++ !o K++ w(++) !O M(-) !V PS+(++)
    PE-() Y+ PGP++ t++(+++@)* 5++ X++@ R+++@
    tv+ b++(+++) DI++ D+ G+ e++>++++ h- r y?

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