[2004] Which programming language should I learn?

What's this - the old time programmers convention.

Burroughs 5500 with Algol and Teletype machines for real time access.

Burroughs 283 - a mini computer that read data off paper tape - programmed in Assembler language.

 

I voted PHP [for the purpose of building websites]. Until earlier this year both of my sites were straight HTML. Within no time both sites were built/rebuilt using PHP and I've never looked back.

 

I forget the model number (5700? 5800? 5900? something like that, I think... later replaced by an IBM 360)... but it used the CANDE language which was kinda neat. And yes, I also learned Algol on that same machine...

First ever desktop was a 64K HP with interpreter Basic, a cassette drive for storage, and a printer with heat sensitive paper...

 

Thats me too guys - Fortran on an IBM 360/30 Punch Cards etc and many days sorting after dropping the lot on the floor!! Never did algol but fiddled about with assembler a bit. Long gone now

 

Ah, yes... I well remember that "just one last run" late at night before the computing centre at the university closed when en route to the printer I dropped a rather large stack of cards on the floor... after that, I decided that perhaps numbering the cards WAS in fact a good idea, since we had automatic sorters that could have rearranged them for me in seconds...

 

I can't compare one language to another.

I jumped in to Perl starting from Perl For Dummies by Paul Hoffman. It's amazing how much useful stuff you can do on the Net just by mastering that book. Another good book is Perl Black Book by Steven Holzner.

I wrote a useless C app once. Personally I wouldn't invest time in C if my purpose was to write web applications. Why not spend the same time learning Perl or php?

I tried RealBasic for awhile. It was pretty nifty, but my main interest is CGI apps so I put it aside to focus on Perl.

If you are comfortable with both Perl and php, how would you compare the two?

 

I changed my mind, I will suggest Whitespace it is not a common language, but if you can master it as a your fist programmin language then you will have no problem learning any other programming language.

 

php just beats

AIM 5601 Rockwell asembler 8k and cassete tape and oh yes heat sensitive paper roll.

Anyone remember 16k eproms that could be UV erased - well it was before sunbeds where common..... (may show my age....)
M

 

Yeah I had a home computer - 6502 based [before IBM Pc' were around] and was warned to be carefull if playing around inside, cause if I pulled the tape off the eprom, the daylight exposure could erase my OS kernel. That machine also operated off a cassette tape. It was an Exidy Sorcerer, that had the unique capabaility of running two cassette tapes and turn the motors on and off. Some town in the US, had developed a billing system for the electricity service that ran on this machne, since with two cassette tapes you could actually do some real work copying last months data to the next month.

 

...well as long as noone noticed that they where billed the same amount each month....
yes I think you're right it was a 6502 8bit revolutionary...

the otherone was the IBM3/15 or so where you could stop the processor manipulate the bits and start it again.... great way to do balance books when just a pennies / cents where missing....
(Although now its even easier just call Arthur Anderson or so...)

M

 

Hmmm. You are a bit older than me... regarding computers I mean I'm sure you also know Cobol, Pascal and... do you remember a stupid language named Modula-3 or something like that? Arghhh!! Fortunately I took C at the right moment, when I was almost ready to commit a Modula-3-suicide.

 

I never learned Cobol, actually -- business wasn't my interest. But some Pascal, yes... I never dabbled in Modula... or Delphi for that matter.

 

ASP and then ASP.net is good. Because they are from Microsoft and as a rule, if you can not compete, go with them.

 

Okay... I'm going to go way out on a limb here and issue a strong recommendation for interpreter BASIC v. 0.9

 

Things your kids will say:
What is a typewriter?
What is a cassette tape?
What is dial up?

then maybe later:

What is HTML?
Who was Bill gates?

But Minstrel, I don't know what interpreter basic is and I'm 33?????

 

*sigh* these young whipper-snappers...

Interpreter BASIC used to come with every (or most) earlier versions of DOS. It was like a stripped down version of compiler BASIC without a compiler -- when you ran the program, each line would be read and interpreted and executed on a real-time as-you-go basis. Slow of course (especially on an 8088 or 80268 machine) but it was actually quite surprising how much you could do with it...

 

Heh, I started out editing Nibbles in Basic from Dos.. Anyway.. I've gone on to learn C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, and a decent amount of PHP. Of all of them, I'd say C was the most foundational, Java has the best API for doing current things in application programming (interfacing with SQL, server side stuff), Visual Basic .NET is the easiest to use for programming network interfacing programs, and PHP is fast and easy to use for web design. Hope that helps.

 

I started out with ASP and still suck at it (but can do most of the basics). I am now trying PHP with my new PHP 4 Beginners Guide. I will probably get the ASP & PHP book after that and get a good understanding of them both. Then if I am really feeling adventurous i will go for an advanced book or maybe work with flash again. I am a designer but flash drives me nutty and while programming seems impossible at times, its fun to have a functional result then spice it up with graphics.

 

My oh my what a crowd of old computer geeks... Oh how I envy you

I'm closing in on 40 soon, and I just realised I HAVE to learn PHP (since I have to stay focused and not get lost in ambitions to learn perl too and so on and so forth).
The only reason I know I´ll get there is, that I really do love sitting here diddling with my computer even though it´s late at night and the misses plus kids are sleeping.

Did I mention this is a cool hang-out

 

Welcome to Digital Point "miko67"

Don't forget about PHP's favorite partner Mysql.