Seems like a decent number of people here are interested in programming. I’m delighted, this is hardly the website I’d expect that at. :P

What languages do you people know? I’ve been all around the block lately. When I was young I fooled around with Logo for a while, and later used C exclusively for the better part of three years. Then it was into the slaughtering house of Java (ugh) for a bit, while I did Ruby on the side. First semester of last year I did Scheme and Python, which were nice changes of pace, and I’ve been doing Haskell for ages. Obviously I’ve learned some PHP/SQL/JS stuff for ImpishIdea… but I’m not sure that’s turned out great. :P

C++ is pretty midlevel, and not lowlevel. :P

Heh, doing terrible with C++ is natural. That language is unholy.

My favorite language is Haskell.

Well, the only actual programming language I consider myself even slightly proficient in is TADS- Text Adventure Development System. I’m slightly obsessed with text adventures, so teaching myself how to program them was the logical next step. ;) TADS is object-oriented and specifically designed for text adventures, although it shares a lot of similarities (in syntax and structure, anyway) with C and Java, and I really need to finish that text adventure I keep poking at but never quite finishing.

I dislike that Java is used for APCS. Java is about the least useful language for learning purposes that I could conceive. Like C it’s got some fussy syntax you’ve got to learn, and people underestimate how much of an annoying hurdle it can be to have to learn syntax when you are trying to learn programming patterns. For years MIT has used Scheme in its introductory programming course, coupled with Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), and that was exactly the right way to do things. I was fortunate enough to take the U of Minnesota’s CSCI1901, which is basically a clone of that course.

Like C it’s got some fussy syntax you’ve got to learn, and people underestimate how much of an annoying hurdle it can be to have to learn syntax when you are trying to learn programming patterns.

Really? I found the syntax to be pretty easy to learn.

Java sucks. ‘Nuff said.

Java is yucky because you have to wrap everything in an object.

Pen and paper is my favorite programing language.

I have done at least something in QBASIC, Visual Basic, C++, Truck, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, Scheme, Java and Matlab, in roughly chronological order. I really like C++ and I miss working in it. Right now I have a project in Matlab which has really expanded my view of programming languages. I used to be really snobbish that anything which didn’t conform fairly closely to traditional CS notions of how a language should be laid out is worthless. When I first started, it seemed to me that Matlab was poorly designed, illogical, and had poor performance. Now that I’ve started to grok it, I’m starting to appreciate the potential value of specialized languages. Although I’d still prefer if it were an open source language.

My C++ is very old. I most recently worked in HTML, Perl, Javascript, CSS, a lot web related.

Hay! How did that math thing go?

Hurrays!

Perl? Nice. That language always looked like witchcraft to me. Since I’ve learned Python and replace the scripting capabilities of Perl I haven’t really bothered with it.

Sly’s a witch! May we burn him?
(I will admit, Perl was GREAT for reading and following people that had previously coded, easiest language i’ve ever seen to unravel)

Uh huh. And commercial software is a bastion of salt of the earth egalitarianism. Seriously, wtf? Yeah, there’s some snobbery. And I think it’s justified. “Hey guys, we’ve got a world-class product that we made for free and gave away for the heck of it” tends to lead towards some legitimate feelings of superiority. That’s strong enough to make a serious negative impression on you?

Not really. Actually trying to make the head from the tail of an open-source project is an exercise in futility. Very few projects are engineered with the standards that I have, easy documentation and discrete and pluggable modules. It’s funny when they talk about how awesome their coding is, when their coding isn’t presentable in the least and often seems hackish. I would understand if you were testing a prototype or idea, but when you release your code you are supposed to make it as easy to use as possible and easy to understand and expand. Code isn’t written just for machines; it is written for humans to read too. It takes longer to refactor you code but I can’t see how you wouldn’t want to do that if you want to write great code that reflects your enthusiasm as a programmer.

For an example of code that humans can make sense of I would recommend almost any Microsoft API. Everything is very well documented and maintainable because of high engineering standards. It maybe a little too much on the blackbox style because the kernel isn’t available for open review, but I like being able to just sift through documentation and understand how to leverage things to my advantage. The usability of open source projects is hindered precisely because they think if you don’t want to sift through a thousand lines of wankery you are an idiot who doesn’t deserve to program. Well, fuck ‘em all.

TI-Basic kicks butt, just for your information.