Five programming languages to know.

[Ghostmn]

What five languages did you learn? What languages did you end up disliking? The number can be more or less. I'm more just curious what languages people choose to learn and why.


I learned C, Vala, x86 assembler and erlang. I do program in C++ every now and then, but not as frequently as the four mentioned.


I'm deeply interested in lower level programming hence C and assembler, but I also like exploring more abstract languages which is why I bothered with Vala (which is very pleasurable at times) and erlang (The weirdest being functional.)

[nathan.the.sane]

I've written programs at some point or another in Ruby, JavaScript, Java, Python, C, C++, and C#. I think they are all nice languages but my favorite is C. Lately I've concentrated almost exclusively on C, mostly for aesthetic reasons. I like how conceptually simple it is, it doesn't hide what's actually going on behind OOP semantics and stuff. Yeah it might require a little more legwork but I like the satisfaction of knowing that I'm responsible for every aspect of whatever I'm doing. I'm going to switch to C++ beginning with my next project, though, because I'm starting to focus on making games and every job posting I've seen from id, Bungie etc. requires C++ so I might as well get used to it in case I want to work for a big game company in the future.

[trent.josephsen]

You will get very different answers from people in different industries and lines of work. For myself, the most practical languages I know have been C, m68k assembly, VHDL and Perl. Maybe LaTeX or SQL could be a fifth.

[tpope]

Java will give you a good primer in object-oriented programming, insofar as structure of the language will expose/encourage you to learn and use OO principle.

Knowing how C works is very useful if you're planning on working with Unix/Linux.

Python is a fully-functional language that is quite often used for scripting.

PHP and Javascript are relatively easy to get started with, and probably the most commonly-used for web programming (although Ruby seems to have gathered a strong following).

[slickymaster]

In my case, and unlike the previous posts, and for professional reasons, Java, C# and PL/SQL.
I'm planning on diving into Python this year.

[faceshed]

I like this. I've been looking for some talk about this kind of stuff, but all I found is the craziest languages ever made. You might be interested:
http://listverse.com/2011/02/17/top-...ing-languages/
I had myself a good hard laugh, and then my wife had a laugh at me for laughing at it so much.

The only languages I know are: c++, java, javascript, actionscript3, a little python and a little lua. I've been meaning to pick up one of the low level ones, I've herd those are a great help for understanding efficiency of programs so I guess I'll learn c at some point. I also herd great things about lisp and it sounds really strange and fun so I plan to learn that next, or one of it's more modern counterparts. Befunge also sounds like fun oddly enough.

So here's my highly non-expert opinion of most important languages to know from most to least:
C++.
Java or another language that's very close to C++.
C or another low level language.
A quick deployment language like python.
Lastly something weird.

[slickymaster]

I like this. I've been looking for some talk about this kind of stuff, but all I found is the craziest languages ever made. You might be interested:
http://listverse.com/2011/02/17/top-...ing-languages/

Truly fabulous. For a moment there I thought I was seeing an episode of Monty Python Flying Circus.

[Ghostmn]

I think they are all nice languages but my favorite is C. Lately I've concentrated almost exclusively on C, mostly for aesthetic reasons. I like how conceptually simple it is, it doesn't hide what's actually going on behind OOP semantics and stuff. Yeah it might require a little more legwork but I like the satisfaction of knowing that I'm responsible for every aspect of whatever I'm doing.

C is definitely my favourite language. I originally started with C++ and the language is just too big for a low level language. So I just stuck with C since it's concise.

The one thing I do prefer in C++ is memory management with new and delete. Malloc gets a bit tricky with multi-dimensional arrays (What I need the most right now).

In my case, and unlike the previous posts, and for professional reasons, Java, C# and PL/SQL.
I'm planning on diving into Python this year.

I think i might get into python, if not ruby. I have yet to really program anything significant in either.

[Bachstelze]

The only language I consider myself competent in is C, but learning it wasn't really something I decided to do (i.e., I didn't wake up one day and thought "I'm going to learn C."). It just so happened that I had to take a class in C, and liked it enough to not throw it away when the class was over (as opposed to Java). Since I am not a programmer (heaven forbid!), I have never felt the need to really learn another language, although I do know a couple other languages to some extent.

[era86]

Languages and why I want(ed) to learn them:

C: low level, memory management, operating systems
Java: OOP, Android apps
Python: easy to learn, quick for scripting
Ruby: Rails, TDD
Objective-C: iOS apps

Learned C and Python in school. The rest were from work or side projects. It'd be nice to learn or relearn Lisp, Erlang, or Prolog.