Other languages I program in:

   shell:  I love its quoting style - it's better than Perl.      
   awk:   (Typically in combination with shell).
           Shell and awk are present on all Unix systems (and I
           don't give a rats ass about non-Unix systems), Perl
           isn't.
   C:      For speed, low memory usuage, and portability. It doesn't
           require Perl to be present.
   SQL:    Hated by many, adored by the few who understand the
           power of set algebra.
   LPC:    It's simple, and MUDs are fun.

If I had more time, I would learn, or learn better: Python, REBOL, Haskell, Eiffel, Ada.

Abigail

if programming languages interest you, you will probably enjoy reading Lambda the Ultimate on a regular basis. intelligent, well-reasoned language comparisons are common there.

personally, i've coded in: C, C++, perl, java, javascript, ML, haskell, XSLT, rexx, SQL, bash, python and several flavors of assembly (MIPS, x86, and Z-80).

i find perl to be the most pleasant to use for the widest variety of tasks. plenty of power without having to do lots of busy work type stuff (like memory management in C/C++ or the annoying type system in java) without forcing me into one particular programming style (functional, OO, procedural, etc). C, assembly, javascript, and SQL each have domains where they are the only option available so you're basically stuck with them. learning functional languages like haskell and ML did wonders for my ability to reason about programs. actually using them though, i found too many things that should have been simple but weren't (eg, basic IO and text processing). python is pretty nice too; python with TKinter makes GUI programming quite painless.

it sounds like you already have a good grasp of functional and procedural programming. maybe a good next step for you would be to learn some assembly. becoming familiar with exactly how things work at that low level can't hurt. you probably won't actually do much assembly programming in your career but the understanding it creates is priceless.

anders pearson

Given the choice, I'd probably program mostly in Perl. It's a nice featureful idiomatic language, without peer for text munging (and 99% of my programs are text munging) and pretty good for most everything else.

The major problem with Perl is that it's slow. (Yeah, yeah, programmer time vs. computer time, but if you have a ten-minute cron window and your script takes 15, you have a more serious problem.) For problems that require the speed of a language compiled to machine code by an optimizing compiler, I'd probably use Common LISP or Scheme. I haven't yet decided which I like more. Wonderful, comfortable languages, the both of them, once you get over your fear of parentheses. For most problems, they're about as quick to program in as Perl, sometimes better, sometimes worse. As usual, it's a matter of knowing the idioms, having a toolchest, and being comfortable with the language.

If I have to write super-fast, low-level code, I'll use C, or maybe carefully-written C++ for an especially large project. C also seems to be the great common denominator of the hacking world: you're pretty much guaranteed that any even vaguely experienced programmer knows C, and that any even vaguely sane system has a C compiler installed. If these points are important to me, I'll probably use C. It sometimes feels like a step backwards coming from one of the languages I mentioned above, but once I've gotten into the swing of the language I do pretty well.

I know (with varying degrees of familiarity) plenty of other languages: 80x86, 68k, and MIPS assembly languages, Haskell (fun!), Prolog (everyone should learn at least a little bit of Prolog), Pascal, and Java are the first that come to mind. They all have their plusses (well, maybe not x86 asm or Pascal :-), but in general, to solve an immediate, real-world problem, I'll pick one of the above.

--

F o x t r o t U n i f o r m

Found a typo in this node? /msg me

Two other considerations are:

What will the CompSci course be teaching or using?

This would be a good consideration. There are probably good reasons why they have chosen a particular language, as it may be good for introducing certain skills and algorithmic techniques. Also, you will steal a march on your classmates.

Which languages are popular on the job market?

This is less important at your stage, as your first job applications and resumés will not be able to count skills picked up in your own time - hobby programming. But, these skills come into fruition if you actually get to use a language or a technique on the job, if you have the understanding up-front.

In particular, there are a few languages not mentioned by others:

• Smalltalk

  This gives a very different, more dynamic feel of OO than C++, and Perl's OO is closer to this.

• Prolog

  Prolog will give you a good introduction to predicate calculus and AI.

• A pure functional language like SASL or Miranda.

I agree, especially with the second point. I still use Delphi/Kylix, but could never find anyone that would pay me to do it around here.

I have found work doing VB/Access VBA/VBScript programming, as much as I hate to admit it. You cannot say VB is a great or powerful language, but a lot of people are running Windows these days.

My advice to you is to stick with Perl and C++ for now. Get some work on a few big projects to sharpen your programming skills. Build a strong foundation. Worry about other languages later.

My favorite is Common Lisp. The ones I use regularly for work are Common Lisp and Perl (mostly because of CPAN). I like Common Lisp because of interactive development, the large size of the language, the fact that it's easy to make abstractions, the fact that it's easy to write very readable code, it's multiparadigmatic nature, and many other reasons.

Common Lisp will give you another take on OOP. So will (for example) Smalltalk (which I also use occasionally - for example, Dolphin Smalltalk gives one a good way to do the types of things (and others as well, of course) that Visual Basic is intended to do). Any specific Smalltalk you may choose is also likely to be a "large language".

• Ziring's Dictionary of Programming Languages, fairly comprehensive and with many small examples
• Doug Bagley's Great Computer Language Shootout (of which I mantain the Win32 version). it's mainly a benchmark suite, but also very good at showing simple algorithms implemented in several languages
• pixel's Languages Study page, especially its syntax across languages project
• also the PLEAC project which aims at reproducing the Perl Cookbook recipes in other programming languages.

PS. one language that I really liked a lot (and almost noone seems to know) is Pliant. really, really worth a look in my opinion.

cheers,
Aldo

King of Laziness, Wizard of Impatience, Lord of Hubris