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What language do you speak? Programming I mean

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by jiminpa

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I have a question for all you programmers out there.

I am not a programmer however I have been dabbling in some programming projects in my current role. Just some simple but useful stuff. I have done some VB, VBScript, ASP and some PHP projects.

I wonder, all the developers out there, do you focus on one language and do everything in that language or do you know many different languages? I would like very much to develope this skill set and possibly even make a shift in career path. Nothing is more enjoyable to me than developing an application and actually seeing it work.

5 replies

by tony hopkinson

you need to pick up more than one language and preferably different types. Dynamically typed, statically, functional, interpreted, compiled, OO, procedural etc.

You'll probably find you are more comfortable in one than the other, but the differences in approach will show you why.

Language doesn't enable you to program, it constrains how and what....

Best O luck by the way, I started at 14, I've never stopped and probably never will.

Creation is very rewarding on a personal level, not always on a financial one though!

Languages I've used commercially

Current
C#
Delphi
Python
SQL
XML
XSL

Past
C
Pascal
C++
Fortan
VBScript
Visual Basic
ASP classic
Javascript
CSS
HTML
CSS
Basic
Speedware
PAL
Perl
PHP
Various shells (VMS, Unix, linux, HP MPE and Windows)
Several 8 bit machine codes
....

Piddled about with, who cares, you need to do something real with it to learn it.

by jmgarvin

----------------------------
Current
----------------------------
ASP.Net
C#
CSS
XML
J Script
MS SQL

----------------------------
Past
----------------------------
C
Perl
C++
Python
Ruby

by jck

The guys are right. You can't, in today's market, focus on one thing. If you could, I'd be a guru. LOL :^0

Current languages:

VB.NET
ASP.NET
XML
VBScript
JavaScript
MS Silverlight
MSIL
SQL

Past languages:
ASP
HTML (1.1-3)
ADA
COBOL (74 and 85)
Fortran (77)
RPG II and III
PL/1
Pascal (Turbo, Object, etc)
Modula-2
Oberon
C (too many varieties to count)
C++ (GNU and MS Visual 5 and Turbo)
Clarion
Gupta SQLWindows 3 and 4
Delphi 2 and 3
dBase II-V
RBase 5000
BASIC (too many to count)
Assembler (IBM PC and Unix-based and C-64)

by jslarochelle

You will need to study the fundamentals:
- Requirements
- Analysis (OO or structured)
- Algorithms
- Design (
Fortunatly to study all of that today you have several alternativers. The Web, books, schools, etc...
To pickup the fundamentals principles (and remember them) one good book is "Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design". From this book you will get a good overview of the whole process from requirements to coding. This includes a very good introduction to use case. It also includes a good introduction to UML and design principles (encapsulation, "open close principle", "single responsibility", "Liskov substitution" and a number of other). THis is done in a very friendly and relaxing way with little exercises and is really fun to go through.
You could also check the Design Pattern book from the same collection ("Head First Design Pattern"). It is the best introduction to patterns that I know.
Don't get discouraged by the number of things listed here. Go at it step by step. Getting to be a really good programmer takes years but you can do a lot of useful work along the way and enjoy the trip.
Some of the languages I have use:
APL
Pascal (mostly Borland flavor)
Delphi (Borland Pascal with OO extensions - lots of them)
C
C++
Java
Ruby
Groovy
In my work today I used mainly:
Java
C++
Groovy
JS

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