Favourite Programming Language

[wlievens]

List your favourite programming language, with a brief listing of reasons why:

Mine:

C++

* highly expressive
* powerfull
* fast
* can be used for almost anything
* relatively easy to learn
* multi-paradigm

 

[Guildenstern]

C++ easy to learn? A lot of it, perhaps, but once you delve deep into the object-oriented stuff it becomes incredibly easy to shoot yourself in the foot. It is certainly powerful, but with power comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes keeping track of a lot of quirky syntax rules which, if not followed, will produce incorrect functionality that is difficult to track because it "looks correct" and produces no compiler errors.

I'm not sure what I would say my favorite is. I grew fairly attached to Perl when using it at summer internships over the last two years. Perl is confusing at first, but once you get used to it it's easy.

C, on the other hand, has always been a mainstay. Simple, and functional. Great for writing standard "academic" type programming problems.

When I first wrote in Java I felt like I was playing with Lego blocks. It was kinda fun.

 

[bobgote]

I'll say Java since i have used it the most.

* Easy to use and learn.
* Very well documented - API wise, and Javadoc is great too.
* Useful for when you want to quickly code up something.
* I like the exception stuff too. so much easier to tell why something's wrong than a lot of other languages.

it also takes away a lot of the work you'd have to do in C++ too (at the expense of performance).

 

[wlievens]

You're right about the exception things, I would like C++ to be more strict on them. Also, java has a standard library that I as a C++ programmer are sometimes jalous of. However... java has serious lacks compared to C++, especially in terms of expressiveness and abstraction: templates, typedefs, enums, operator overloading, low-level memory stuff, unsigned integer types, multiple inheritance, ...

 

[funxus]

My favourite's VB (6, not .NET), because it's the one I handle best.

Pros:
*Easy to create the GUI
*Forgiving
*Easy error handling
*Easy to learn
*Less code to write, a lot is automatic

Cons:
*Not very fast, similar in speed to java
*Only works in Windows
*Takes a lot of space
*No competition (?), only MS's compiler
*Limited when it comes to data structures and similar

 

[wlievens]

funxus: VB doesn't support inheritance, which is very limiting. Also, it's not very strong in type-checking, and that can cause unexpected errors.

 

[funxus]

I know there are more cons for VB, but I couldn't list them all. Still, it's my fav because it suits my private needs very well.

 

[wlievens]

I use VB for small applications, but its lack of abstraction-promoting features makes it useless for medium-size projects.

 

[Fanatica]

Plain old basic .... because it was just that.

 

[FireBall]

Java.. I'll explain why in a later post, nto right now...

 

[Padma]

Plain old C was always a favorite of mine ....

Currently, I would say Java. It does everything I need it to do, and it does it well. It is simpler than C++ (less chance of shooting yourself in the foot), yet it does all the *important* things that C++ does. The only time I use C++ is when I *need* the speed it provides, and then, it usually suffices to write a dll that I can call from Java.

 

[Mr. Guy]

JAVA
yeah, it's the only one i know, but everyone at at school calls me the java geek

 

[bobgote]

Originally posted by wlievens
You're right about the exception things, I would like C++ to be more strict on them. Also, java has a standard library that I as a C++ programmer are sometimes jalous of. However... java has serious lacks compared to C++, especially in terms of expressiveness and abstraction: templates, typedefs, enums, operator overloading, low-level memory stuff, unsigned integer types, multiple inheritance, ...

the operator overloading and multiple inheritance are the worst of them. but the safety of java means i favour it.

 

[wlievens]

I've never had problems with C++'s imaginary lack of safety. If the "safety" of Java makes you scared of C++, it means you need to think somewhat harder while coding

I see only two things Java does better than C++:
* A bigger standard library (but, boost is slowly making its way into standardization...)
* More strict exception handling

 

[funxus]

The main reason for using Java is that it can be used on practically any platform (isn't there a word for this?), but I don't see it on your list. Did you forget it or do you have a reason for not adding it?

 

[wlievens]

The word is "portability".

C++ is just as portable when you use portable libraries. Most un-portable libraries are those related to low-level system tasks, such as threads, sockets, timing, ...

So although you are right, the problem comes together with the fact that C++'s standard libraries are limited.

 

[Dell19]

Java because thats the one I use mostly...

 

[bobgote]

Originally posted by wlievens
I've never had problems with C++'s imaginary lack of safety. If the "safety" of Java makes you scared of C++, it means you need to think somewhat harder while coding

I see only two things Java does better than C++:
* A bigger standard library (but, boost is slowly making its way into standardization...)
* More strict exception handling

i can program in C++ if it's necessary

 

[col]

FORTRAN

When youre solving 10000 simultaneous diff equations, all you want is speed.

 

[Hakim]

The Java language is standardized, C has several accents.

I would like the possibility to create types without using classes though. And generate binaries instead of bytecode.