Alan Gauld wrote:
On 07/10/11 16:40, lina wrote:
but today I was also discouraged, I was told that you should not have
learned python, you should focus on C or bash, or D, cause python is
going to be obsolete,
C is a great language for writing Operating Systems and other "near the
metal" code. But its not the best language for busiess apps, artificial
intelligence and a host of other things. Bash is a good user shell, but
its not even the best Unix shell for scripting (Thats probably ksh).
D? Who actually uses D? I think your informant was not well informed.
Ah, flame wars over which is the best language :)
I don't know enough about ksh to compare it to bash, but at least you
didn't recommend csh :)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/
But frankly, all the shell languages are pretty horrible.
D might not be a popular language, but it is a modern, advanced language
in the C family, influenced heavily by Python. If I were to learn a new
statically typed procedural/object-oriented language, I'd seriously
consider learning D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D_(programming_language)
But it really depends on why you are learning the language.
Are you learning a language because you need it for a specific job or
project? Then learn whatever language you need, because you need it,
regardless of whether it is widespread or not.
Are you learning a language because you want to maximize your chances of
getting a job? Then learn one of the big commercial languages like VB,
C, C++, PHP, Javascript or Java. You won't learn to be a better
programmer, you may learn to be a *worse* programmer, and you might be
competing with thousands of code monkeys, but there are plenty of jobs
available.
Are you learning a language because you want to get the highest paid
job? Then become an expert in an old language like PL/I or Fortran or
something, and do it 30 years ago so you can claim 30 years experience.
Now, if you can find a job -- and good luck with that -- you can pretty
much set your own rate.
Do you want to learn a new language for the love of learning languages?
Then learn a wide variety of languages.
Do you want to expand your skill-set (good for the resume!) and open
your mind to new programming concepts? Then learn a variety of languages
using many different programming paradigms:
* procedural
* declarative
* functional
* logic/deductive
* object-oriented
* stack-based
* concatenative
* concurrent
* natural language programming
* esoteric languages
etc.
Even if you don't have the time to learn the language, learn ABOUT the
language.
You will never say, "Gosh, I wish I knew FEWER programming languages!"
--
Steven
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