Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Which Language To Learn Next?

Once you have mastered one programming language, it is a good idea to branch out and learn some others.  Each language is optimized for different things.  Knowing multiple will give you a larger set of tools one of which which may solve the problem at hand better than others.  Additionally, and more importantly, different classes of languages approach problems very differently.  Learning languages from other groups will expand your thinking even if you stick to one language for most of your programming tasks.  C++, Java, and C# are all from a similar language class.  Languages like Lisp or Smalltalk are not.  Learning those requires learning new ways of thinking.  Christopher Diggins from Dobbs Code Talk presents a list of languages he recommends learning and what to get from them.  If you are looking to expand your horizons, check it out.

1 comment:

  1. The languages I recommend people learn are:
    1.  Visual Basic - With this language the world of MS is pretty much at your fingertips.  VB allows you to create world class apps in Visual Studio and almost every MS app or server has a way to program it using VB.
    2.  SQL - Everything has a database these days.
    3.  PowerShell - The next generation of managing Windows.
    JamesNT

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