Best programming language?

Which is the difference between them all? Which does what? Which is best?

Thanks, Ben.

 

There is no "best" programming language.

You may want look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages

 

If there was one that was truely the best there would only be one language.

Each language has its own strengths and weaknesses and may be the best for a certain circumstance but even then there is a lot of subjectiveness in the determination of the best.

Generally people will have latched on to one or a small group of languages and will proclaim it/ them to be the best against all evidence (or for many amature programmers without even looking for evidence)

 

I really wanted to know what language does what kind of thing?

 

Pretty stupid question lol..

But if you want to make some money, then go into PHP and start to make some vb mods

 

It's a bit like asking which car is best! It depends what you want it to do!

PHP is free, has lots of features and you can get lots of free snippets.
ASP (JScript/VBScript/C#) is microsoft, so you have to get windows webspace.

Other web languages are a bit too obscure to care about.

 

What exactly do you want to accomplish programming? The answer depends on this question. ;\

 

if I could choose, I will choose c++.

 

If you're talking general programming, I'd learn C first as it's syntactically similar to other languages like JavaScript and Perl and you'll learn the fundamentals, then go on to C++ as you'll then get a good hold into Object Oriented Programming and have a good base to learn other languages like Java / C# etc.

 

I'm going to say PHP/MySQL without a shadow of a doubt... the most flexible and simplest...

 

not sure how someone can say php is the simplist when there are many higher level languages and so the syntax much more "english" in nature.... guess it just prove my point though

 

^^ Thats your opinion though and I respect that, just like its my opinion that PHP/MySQL is the best.

And I guess PHP is sort of simple english... the "if" statements, "isset" statements, go figure lol

 

I guess it's

if(something==something2){ somethingelse(); } else { somethingelseagain(); }

Code (markup):

vs

IF something=something2 THEN somethingelse() ELSE somethingelseagain() ENDIF

Code (markup):

I find PHP (the top one) actually easier to read. You can do more in PHP than VB (the bottom one) with less code IMHO.

 

It is easier to read, but just for the record, I am not voting and saying that PHP wipes the floors with the others, just saying I prefer PHP/MySQL myself (probably because I've worked with it for like 2-3 years now.)

 

If you are starter and have interest in web development then learn PHP first and after 2 or so years you can move to more profitable web languages as Ruby on Rails(framework on Ruby language) or J2EE

 

It is certainly something that a person gets used to and after learning a language you find its syntax the easiest to learn but from starting off it is hard to argue that remember that "==" rather than "=" is easier (plus remembering {} and ;s etc)

Once you have learned a few languages you can easily switch between then (though I still hate SQL with its If Begin End Else Begin End etc)

 

I find the quirks actually quite useful...

for instance

something = 0;
if(something == 0) {
   do_something();
}

Code (markup):

now in VB

something = 0
IF something = 0 THEN
    do_something()
END IF

Code (markup):

Hold on though, shouldn't "something = 0" only ever have one meaning? Programming languages shouldn't be contextual.

"=" should set variables.
"==" should be a comparitor.

Just my opinion mind you!

 

But as a higher level language it is closer to english in which case things are contextual... again, neither is right or wrong and you can learn both but for someone with no experience it is generally easier to pick up something closer to what they already know (ie english)

 

Lol that's like asking what the best color is. Some are better than others in some situations, but often it's just personal preference.

 

I prefer PHP & MySQL since there are multiple ways of implementing the code. i.e.

<? IF (your condition) { ?> <---normal operators / logical operators != == > < &&...
Can write a bunch of plain HTML HERE
<? } ELSE {?> <---close syntax / IF statement or can go into else
Can write a bunch of plain HTML HERE AGAIN
<? } ?> <---Finally close syntax again.

or you can write like

<? IF (you condition) {
echo blah blah blah;
} else {
print blah blah blah;
} ?>

It's all user preference with php and I enjoy the "open source" of this programming language

I heard asp / .net is notorious for bugs and I try my best to stay away from it.
What is the best... I say PHP since there are so many tuts on the web! Go to the local library or bookstore and purchase some PHP quickstart guides. Anyways, I enjoy being a LAMP (linux apache mysql php) programmer. Learned it all myself and took java programming classes in school to get the "basics" of programming...

P.S. HoagieKat is right the double== means "equal to" and the single= means "is set to" ... Just print out all the operators and logical operators as a cheat sheet as well as other php & mysql cheat sheets. I have them taped all over the walls near my computer for brain fart reference.