What are the most important programming languages to know for concepts? [closed]

Answer 1

Its best to know a variety. This gives you a better overall perspective of the art of programming, plus, you get to choose the best tool for the job.

My current list would be:-

• C - programming close to the machine.
• Python - programmers nirvana.
• Perl - for when s**t happens.
• Java - cause it will keep you in work.
• C# - cause it will keep you in work.
• lisp, scheme or something functional to get your brain out of a rut.
• SQL - for managing large data sets.
• JCL, COBOL, VAX DCL, CShell VB - just to remind you how bad things could be!

Answer 2

You should start from C and go through C++, Java and the goto WinForms, Then better goto .NET

Answer 3

• The assembly languages of as many chips as you can learn for low-level knowledge.
• C to learn more practical knowledge of low-level workings, since almost all languages are implemented in C.
• C++ for object-oriented programming on top of the low-level goodness of C.
• Pascal to learn how to work with strong typing.
• Java to see how you can shield yourself from low-level concerns.
• Perl to learn regular expressions, weak/dynamic typing, and other good things.
• Python to see strong/dynamic/duck typing.
• Ruby to see how object-orientedness works on top of Perl-esque weak/dynamic typing.
• Common Lisp for that functional enlightenment.
• Scheme for the emphasis on recursion.
• Emacs Lisp so you can extend Emacs.
• Haskell to see pure functional programming done right.
• APL so you learn how not to write code.
• COBOL so you can make mad money maintaining legacy code.
• Erlang to really learn about concurrency. (Thanks to Pete Kirkham for correcting me.)
• Scala for functional programming on the JVM.
• Clojure for a Lisp-like functional language on the JVM.
• Prolog to understand logic programming.
• D so you can see why all the D fanatics are always so pro-D.
• C# so you can program for .NET (and Mono).
• F# so you can do functional programming on .NET.
• Forth for stack-based languages.
• PHP so you can see how not to create a language. (Just kidding. Learn PHP beacause it's really useful for web development.)
• JavaScript because it's basically the language for client-side web scripting.
• bash for a good, general-purpose scripting language.
• Visual Basic so you can read the code your boss wrote. =)
• INTERCAL for "fun."
• brainfuck so you can torture your friends.
• LOLCODE so you can convince them to still be your friends after you subject them to brainfuck.

...And so on.

Answer 4

I think the three languages that best combine practicality and coverage of programming concepts would be

• C
• Python
• Javascript

From these languages you can learn low-level system programming, pointers and memory management, static typing, dynamic typing, high-level scripting, event-driven programming, OO programming, functional programming.

Obviously you're not going to get as pure an intro to functional programming as you would with, say, Haskell, but you can learn a lot of the concepts in Python and (especially) Javascript.

Answer 5

For concepts, I would choose assembler and Java.

The first because you should know in intimate detail how machines work.

The second because you should understand how to shield yourself from the intimate details of the way machines work :-). By that I mean a language with a rich set of data structures at hand (so really Java could be Python, C++ with Boost and so on).

Answer 6

For web programming: PHP, ANSI-SQL, javascript.

Some people may argue that HTML and CSS are not programming languages. But they are esential for web app development.

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For Desktop app development, C++ with the Qt Framework. Qt gives C++ the additional "cross-platform" fizz.