Greetings programs, Well, the straight razor and fountain pen hobbies are chugging along nicely, all major house renovations are done for now and the classical guitar studies are moving along nicely. I'd like to learn something new and have chosen to dabble in computer programming. Now my question to you is: which language would be good to learn? I've dabbled in everything from basic and dos to COBOL and pascal but I know these are all outdated. I've been considering C++. My goal isn't to become a computer programmer, just to understand some of the basic programming behind some of the applications I use and, maybe just for fun, develop a useful basic program or two for home use. Let the debate begin
I wrote COBOL on an OS360 for a number of years. Yuck to that and JCL... Do you use a smart phone? If you do, download the SDK and develop an application for that. If not, I would probably mess with PHP and make a web based application. The last thing I wrote for myself was a random play list generator in PERL. In a recursive loop, it read the file structure, loaded and randomized an array, then output a playlist. No one is too hot on that as a scripting language any more.
I'll look into those as well. Now, may I ask everyone to give a brief reason as to why they make the suggestions they do? It would help me to understand what each programming platform has to offer. Thanks all.
Java is used mainly for Enterprise Platforms. There is a lot of technologies and libraries. Most of them are free to use. Java is embedded in cars, consumer electronics, etc. Very perspective directions. For a long time already.
I learned some now outdated languages, but now only use VBA. If you have MS Office, you already have access to VBA which would make it an easy choice. Well suited to the dabbler as it is relatively easy to learn, though lacks the power and efficiency of some higher end languages. Granted, "real" programmers will laugh at the suggestion, but as you said, you're not trying to become a programmer.
Since you already know some basic, further polishing your ability might be a good idea. I'd recommend C++ myself, as I found it a more useful stepping stone to move into java and php.
my personal opinion is if u just want to do casual and make some easy to use and do programs i would say use Java. If u wanted to get more serious i would say C++ as it is one of the main used languages used today.
Sparky, Doing just some cursory reviewing of C++ and Java, I would think Java is more useful since it's platform independant. Do you think C++ is easier to learn given my very limited experience? I think I'll start with one of the two of these, just not sure which one yet.
Java is platform independent, while C++ is not. Java is more friendly and easier to understand. You are not probably going into system programming, right?
No,not at all. Just a hobby for my own continuing pursuit of learning. Maybe hobby isn't the right word but I'm trying to convey a non-professional purpose to my study of a new programming language. It was the best word I could think of. If I learn well enough to build something useful, that's a plus.
