On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 12:04 AM, Bryan Sant <bryan.s...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Henry Paul <he...@paulfam.com> wrote: >> From what I have seen in regards to salaries over the last few years, I >> think Java has remained much more relevant than .NET has to the >> industry. Maybe part of that has been the emphasis on such simplified >> software development that crappy apps can be cranked out much faster now. >> >> In fact a senior Java developer currently can make 2x what I do as a >> senior systems admin. Yikes. Almost makes me wish I had gone into Java >> development right out of school. >> >> -Henry > > Those who know me, know that I'm the biggest Java bigot on the list. > However, I'm noticing more and more that employers are willing to pay > well for a variety of programming languages. Where I work now I > program about half the time in Java (the skill I was hired for), and > the other half I program in Ruby (Rails 3), JavaScript (Node.js), Pig > (Hadoop), and of course shell scripty stuff. It's fun. Wondering if > this multi-language trend was specific to my company, I've checked out > some other high-paying jobs in the area and they've wanted everything > from Ruby, C#, C/C++, PHP, Objective C, Python, and of course Java. I > think you can make good money using any language, so long as you rock > at it. Though, you can't go wrong with strong Java skills -- it still > tops the market for now. > > I think it's good for everyone to know a little Java (just to be > familiar with the platform), but if I were starting out now with no > specific skills in any given language, I think I'd go with Python, > Ruby, or JavaScript. In short, just pick a language that you enjoy > using, and really dig in. You can't go wrong. > > -Bryan
For a first language? Surely you jest. Learn C and then C++, that way you won't have to unlearn a bunch of bad habits and will learn the good stuff you do need to know. Once you have those two under your belt, then move on to Python and/or Java. Also and maybe this is just me, but I'm finding myself turning to Scala a lot for tasks I used to use ruby, perl and/or python for. But Scala is best understood when placed in the context of Java. Once you have the core of C/C++/Java then you have a foundation to start learning the others. For the record, one of the best programmers I ever met started off learning Lua first. I don't know if it was because he learned Lua first that he got so good so fast, or if he just had natural talent, but I was in awe of what he could do in just a few lines of code in just about any language. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
