What is your favorite programming language and why?

Started by Blank, March 03, 2009, 02:28:57 AM

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Blank

C

That simple.  It's probably because I have so much power at the low level or that I'm the most familar with it, though I suppose this question vastly depends on what you're working on.  But in general, C.

Python and Java are the runners up.  I like Java because it enforces OOP and Python because its so... EASY!  Fell in love with Python the moment I started looking over the tutorial.

MHaji

Lisp, Scheme dialect. I'm a biologist, not a programmer, and man does programming in Lisp remind me of biology. Building your tools from the ground up in a system that lets you "evolve" programs, in a way, is neat.

Of course, you could argue that Perl is more bio-ish, with its improvised, hacky, absolutely pragmatic nature, and it's pretty cool, too.
Ons and offs, in song form.

-

AUCUUCUACGAACGUGAAGCUGACACUCAUAUUAGUCCCAUGAUGGAA

Oniya

(Not my work, but it seemed appropriate - and filk is sort of public domain, or at least GNU licensed.)

When I find my code in tons of trouble,
Friends and colleagues come to me,
Speaking words of wisdom:
"Write in C."

As the deadline fast approaches,
And bugs are all that I can see,
Somewhere, someone whispers:
"Write in C."

Write in C, Write in C,
Write in C, oh, Write in C.
LOGO's dead and buried,
Write in C.

I used to write a lot of FORTRAN,
For science it worked flawlessly.
Try using it for graphics!
Write in C.

If you've just spent nearly 30 hours
Debugging some assembly,
Soon you will be glad to
Write in C.

Write in C, Write in C,
Write in C, yeah, Write in C.
Only wimps use BASIC.
Write in C.

Write in C, Write in C
Write in C, oh, Write in C.
Pascal won't quite cut it.
Write in C.

Write in C, Write in C,
Write in C, yeah, Write in C.
Don't even mention COBOL.
Write in C.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Vekseid

I have a pretty good mp3 of that.

I don't really have a favorite language. I use a hammer to pound nails, an axe to chop wood. I use C to write small things that need to be fast and most everything else goes into some sort of interpreted language - Labview, Python, PHP, Javascript, Perl, SQL, etc.

I'm dealing mostly with web technologies lately, which means I either work with what the web runs on (C) or the suite built on its back - SQL, Python, PHP, and Javascript. I've used C++ and Java, of course, just not nearly so much.

Hard for me to pick a favorite, really. Probably Python, even though much of my work lately has been C + SQL + PHP + Javascript.

Blank

Lisp... Haven't learned that one yet.  Will soon though.  Heard great things about it though.  Though I'm surprised that a biologist is using lisp.  Maybe I guess I don't know enough about biologists to know how often the use programming languages.

XP That song seems a bit out dated now.  But still lol worthy.

Vek, even by looking at the languages you use, I can tell you are probably are into web technologies.  Javascript was a big tip. =3  Everyone and their dog on the net uses javascript.  Also PHP and such.  =3  Cool beans.

Oniya

I think the filk dates back to the mid eighties?  There are reportedly other verses out there, as filk tends to mutate.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

MHaji

I learned Lisp as a teaching exercise, though it is pretty popular with AI people and a few neurobiologists. In practice, I've used Perl.
Ons and offs, in song form.

-

AUCUUCUACGAACGUGAAGCUGACACUCAUAUUAGUCCCAUGAUGGAA

Avis habilis

I'll probably get scoffed at, but I found VBScript/VBA was a really handy thing to know. I cut my teeth on ASP2 & branched out from there into Office applications & the transition was nearly seamless. I've learned some Java, but the lowest-level language I ever learned was C++. Nowadays I work entirely in PHP/JavaScript.

eon

Yeah, I was taught VB and VBA - got an A grade in Computing A level.  :) I'm in the middle of teaching myself C++ as its used for a lot of physics simulation software. I'm not very good with it though...

Apple of Eris

I only write in binary and machine code. I'm hardcore like that.
Men are those creatures with two legs and eight hands.  ~Jayne Mansfield
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, then call whatever you hit the target. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Ons/Offs
Stories I'm Seeking

Vekseid

Of course, I'm sure it compiles, Apple, but does it run? : )

I've used, in rough order of my learning them:

Basic, Pascal, C++, C, Assembly (x86), Visual Basic, VBA, Delphi, Machine Code (x86), Perl, Javascript, Labview, Assembly (68k), Python, SQL, PHP...

I've probably missed a few.

But yeah. I do think we haven't seen the beginning of the web technology sphere yet. Most of the functionality you see now - from here to Facebook - is primitive in terms of what is actually possible, as well as its quality of construction.

Avis habilis

I did a bit of Pascal in high school. The teacher said he picked that language because he wanted to teach us something you couldn't write a game in. So I wrote a text-based adventure game. (Nyah!)

Quote from: Vekseid on March 07, 2009, 10:35:13 AMI do think we haven't seen the beginning of the web technology sphere yet. Most of the functionality you see now - from here to Facebook - is primitive in terms of what is actually possible, as well as its quality of construction.

Honestly, now that I've been working in IT for a few years & know how the web works, I'm often surprised that it does.

Oniya

If you can write a game in a low-level language like BASIC, then using a higher-level language like PASCAL makes it a piece of cake. 
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

eon

You say that... I tried to make a game in VB once, and it took me forever, and never worked... *grins sheepishly* I'm not the greatest programmer in the world. lol

Vekseid

Quote from: Avis Habilis on March 07, 2009, 09:35:32 PM
I did a bit of Pascal in high school. The teacher said he picked that language because he wanted to teach us something you couldn't write a game in. So I wrote a text-based adventure game. (Nyah!)

Fully half of BBS Door games were written in Pascal because one man (Scott Baker of Land of Devastation) released a library for it for free.

Avis habilis

Quote from: Vekseid on March 08, 2009, 07:21:09 AMFully half of BBS Door games were written in Pascal because one man (Scott Baker of Land of Devastation) released a library for it for free.

Door games? I'm afraid I was late to life on line & missed the BBS era entirely.

Vekseid

Well, okay. We have the forums here, as you can see. BBSes were not so terribly different from them. Especially if you browse using ;wap2 and don't use your mouse.

Anyway, BBS packages did not come with games, so, in order to play games, you had to interfact with someone else's program - the game. In order to link between them, you had to execute this external program - a BBS door, and store a configuration file the BBS could understand - a door file (for saved games, generally).

Scott Baker wrote, in Pascal, the entire networking library needed to create a BBS Door program. Was used by an insane number of people and responsible for a few small fortunes in door game registrations.

Oniya

"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Apple of Eris

Men are those creatures with two legs and eight hands.  ~Jayne Mansfield
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, then call whatever you hit the target. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Ons/Offs
Stories I'm Seeking

Vekseid

I'm sometimes tempted to host a semi-public nethack server on Elliquiy >_>

Avis habilis

So for the full effect, I ought to be using Lynx?

Vekseid

If you keep your fingers off the arrow keys.

Basically it was entirely menu driven, characters would send commands, etc.

Blank

Sounds like we have some hardcore programmers here.  =3  Alright what's your favorite text editor?

Emacs here.  O8)

Avis habilis

I've used vi enough to know I'd be happy not to use it. There may not be many advantages to working mostly in a Windows environment, but at least Notepad is easy. Then again, I use Notepad++ more often these days.

Oniya

Notepad's good enough.  None of this lame WYSIWYG for me ;)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17