/prog/ - Programming

>>3064

Also, if someone looking to get into programming comes to you, wanting to map out their studying, and asks for advice on which languages they should learn for

a) general programming

b) scientific/academic programming

c) mobile programming

d) embedded/low-level programming.

What would you say?

C and C, sadly. We really need a new systems language.

>but anon, this language with gc and shit performance and can't compile large projects is totally going to replace C!

>>3065

>>3065

>a) general programming

Historic: Fortran, but you could argue Lisp.

Modern: Javascript, unfortunately.

>b) scientific/academic programming

Historic: Fortran

Modern: Python, Matlab and Mathematica used a lot in academia. For the study of type systems Haskell, ML, etc. For teaching, Python and Racket/Scheme.

>c) mobile programming

Javascript, Java, Objective-C/Swift, C. First because of the web, the second two for native apps, and C for many gaming libraries.

>d) embedded/low-level programming.

C all the way.

>>3068

Where I take General to mean, something like a lowest common denominator for the average person. Javascript or Python would work.

>>3065

Also definitely learn Assembly for the d) category.

Assembler language is that language everybody should know and almost nobody has to use. You should know it just so you have a full understanding of how a computer works, why certain optimization techniques do what they do, and have a good tool at your disposal for debugging compiled code.

>>3068

And I forgot R for b) modern.

>>3065

a) C, Lisp(s), Golang, C++.

b) I really don't know, i suppose functional languages are pretty popular in academia, maybe quick'n'dirty ones like python too.

c) Depends on the platform, but sadly the main ones are Java and obj-c.

d) Assembly. For some really convoluted machines C might be better though. For portability, C.