peace_of_mind

If you could do it all over again, knowing what you know now about all the different languages you've worked with, which language would you choose to start with and stick with? There is no right or wrong answer, and I realize that. It's a matter of opinion, which is why it's in this forum. I wanna see how many different responses we get and see why folks choose to stay with their language of choice.

I have dabbled with python, given C++ a quick look, and have worked the most thus far with C, which I suppose it my language of choice at the moment. It's a popular language, so code isn't hard to dig up, nor is there a shortage of compilers to choose from. My biggest drawback is that I can't really decide between C, C++, Java, or C#. If it were just for fun it wouldn't matter to me. I'd pick one and run with it. The thing is I'm currently going to school for a degree (associate's) in CIS with a networking specialization. I don't have a whole lot of time to move from language to language until I find one I really like. I need to decide on one that will best help me in my future career (I realize I won't necessarily NEED to be proficient in a language, but it could only help me, not hurt me later on) and get working on it now. Since programming is not a huge concern for my given specializaion, I'll only have to take I think one programming class. And the languages offered are C, Java, Cobol, and there may be another, but the 3 I'm certain of. My thinking has been that maybe Java would be best suited for what I'd need, but the current surge in C# has me wondering.

Anywho, that's where I'm coming from. How about you guys?

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LOI Kratong

Mmmm i'm inclined to stick with c++ which i'm on at the minute. I'd like to get into Java and C and C# too, but hey don't really know...

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Rory

Learning nothing but Assembly
Actually not wasting time with BASIC, VB, Pascal, Delphi and learning C straight off.

LOI Kratong

Actually yeah, learning ASM really well and properly first time sounds like a good idea... Would like to give that a go!

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Infinite Recursion

I agree with Rory...

I would have skipped the Basic, XBasic, BasicA, Qbasic, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol and went straight into C, C++, Java, C#, VB.Net, PHP, and Python.

But then again, I was very young when I started and most of the "other" languages weren't even around. lol

But I definitely see a lot of future work in Java and more so in C#. There will still need to be maintenance of legacy apps in C and C++ for you hardcore coders.

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uman

If IR got his way C# would be the only language :-P

Mjordan2nd

I would actually like to have learned assembly before anything else, since I believe that it gives you a deeper knowledge of what actually goes on at the machine-level when you're coding in a higher level language. I would then move on to C.

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Ooble

I started with C this time around, and I'd do it again. What I wouldn't do is move to VB for a year or so - I'd learn C++ properly instead.

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Nuticulus

I suppose I'd select C++. It's a powerful language, and even if I felt like writing C, I could hop to it anyway. Hooray for object oriented goodness.

I prefer C though. But, I couldn't give up C++.

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layer

Well, I'd have to say... Hmm... Toughie. I've actually never coded in Basic, any of them. I started out with batch files, then I tried various other crap, can't remember - oh yea! I was downloading extensions for C++ when I didn't even know what C++ was I've tried Java, but never coded something, because the compilers I always downloaded were trials, and never gave me enough time to learn. And I've tried Java IDE's like NetBeans or something, and that was horribly slow, so I gave up with that. Then I tried ASM as I was learning batch files :p I created an application that did NOTHING... And that was the end of that! I used GoAsm Then, I found AutoIt. Which was the best boost I'd ever gotten in computers. Because I'd have to say, after that, I had a few tough times with C++, but all the loops, and a lot of other stuff in C++ came easy thank god. But the way that AutoIt is heading, I would have gone back and just wrote in AutoIt coding...