Programming language of choice

based on your experience, If you could only program in one language, which honored language would you stick with for the rest of your life?

Keep in mind your favorite development area as well. If you like web development, you probably don't want to choose Fortran.

I can't see anything other than C/C++ being picked from that list for the all around language. If the question was geared towards just web development - I would stick it out with php. But then again, you can use almost all of the above to create xml.

Maybe you should rephrase the question a bit...

the question really is "what is your favorite language regardless of development purpose."

It's a little wierd to compare php to languages like c++ though. No one in their right mind would code web applications in a low level language unless they really needed extremely tight control over memory usage to etch out every last nanosecond of processor time.

But for one language to unite them all , like jpenn said, you can't beat C++, since it can do literally everything.

I realize there are tasks out there that are best done in C/C++, but I don't particularly want to do them. If I could program in nothing but Perl, I'd be content. I wouldn't have the fastest code on the block, and I'd never get to finish that 3D Scorched Earth thing I started in OGL/DX (yes, once in each), but I wouldn't mind too terribly much.

Well, I say that now. I will say if I were to change my mind to anything else, without a doubt, it would be C/C++. I'd still call C++ the best all-around language, but the question was what would I like to program in.

Because only I get to mess around with my name



That is the purpose. Personally, I don't even know C++, so I can't vote for it. Besides, I have enjoyed doing Perl so much lately that I am having a hard time picking up ASP.NET again.

Python:
- Quick to learn
- Quick to develop in
- Pushes you towards writing clear, easily readable code

All essential stuff when you're as innately unproductive and forgetful as I am.

The answer for me is PHP - it allows fast platform independant applications development, and the end results can be seen by the whole world. What could be more fun ??


christo

Platform indepence does have its drawbacks too. For example, java GUI generally looks inferior in Windows. I stay away from any java app for Windows.

Low level? Scof! I don't see Assember on that list.

Anybody still use Turbo C++? I just found my original disks this weekend... ah, the memories! I put together a star-field simulator using inline asm... int 10, using good ol' fashioned mode 13 (AX, 0013H) Man, I had to work in a delay loops to stop it from looking like blinking horizontal lines!

If it had to be one, it would be C++ for me. You just create a whole bunch of classes for web dev., and before you know it, you find that that you created your own version of PERL!


Nao

what do you think about ibm's swt?

I was torn between PHP and Java here, in terms of overall preference. Obviously they serve completely different purposes. I ended up voting for PHP.

Not very highly. It resembles Mac UI (yuck), like all java apps I've seen.

I love writing java though, but strictly command based.

I'll have to admit that while I enjoy PHP/Perl style web programming, if I really had a choice, I would probably be programming in one of the functional languages. I have been enjoying a leisurely read through Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP, aka "the Wizard Book"), and following the programming examples in Common LISP, on one of my Linux boxes. While some of the commands are a little different from the classic LISP used in SICP, it is close enough to figure out. What a cool language. And figure, it was invented in the 1960s. We don't seem to really have progressed much on the theoretical side of programming languages in the past 30-40 years . Yes, we have an explosion of implementations of this or that, but very little theoretical advance, IMHO.

Somehow, LISP, and the functional approach to programming in general, just strikes me as a much better way to approach the whole messy business of getting computers to do what we want. Maybe I am seduced by its pure mathematical/logical model, but I think there is a valid argument for this approach. LISP is declarative in nature, rather than procedural/ad-hoc, and I like the idea that the whole program is evaluated as a piece, rather than iteratively stepped-through, depending on loops, incremented variables, and other side-effects.

If you are only used to procedural/OOP programming, this takes a little time to wrap your brain around (an apt phrase, once you get the picture ), but I think the benefits might be worth it.

Functional languages seem to be enjoying a bit of a revival anyway. Check out the following links:

http://paulgraham.com/lisp.html
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming
http://developers.slashdot.org/sear...uery=functional

Notice in the Slashdot links that for the past few years, functional programmers have won the annual IFCP contest.

Hmm...

Oh also, apparently TCL is a somewhat functional language, and there is a mod_tcl for Apache, so I might just have to do a little more dabbling .