Ask HN: What language should I learn?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3388174

by smoran02 • 15 years ago

3 7 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi,

I'm a Computer Science major in college right now, and it's moving at a somewhat slow pace for me -- granted, I am in the very early stages. I have some experience with C++ and very little experience with Ruby.

I have heard about lots of languages, but I'm not sure what I should start to teach myself that would be the most useful. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks.

steventruong• 15 years ago

1. It ultimately depends on what you aim to do. A large part of HN will recommend Python (myself included).

2. If you do a quick search, you'll realize this has been covered an endless amount of time with more in depth answers to help.

smoran02• 15 years ago

Alright, thanks. Should have thought of that.

notmyname• 15 years ago

French. Or Arabic. Or whatever you don't already speak.

Snark aside, the standard answer is something like "Learn a language in each of the different kinds or programming (functional, procedural, etc)". Really, though, programming is not about a particular syntax. It's about learning how to think and deconstruct problems.

So that brings me back to the spoken languages. Learn new things that will challenge you (spoken languages are great), and learn how to deconstruct problems. And above all, have fun doing it.

rman666• 15 years ago

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. Or something else, it's up to you :-)

gexla• 15 years ago

Asking which language you should learn is like walking into a wood shop and asking which tool you should learn to use. Screw the tools, just build something and grab whichever tools you feel are right for the job along the way.

I never could learn a programming language for the sake of learning. I always had some idea of something I wanted to build and then used that project as my learning experience. Hopefully at the end I had something which could possible be useful for me.

You should probably be doing the same. If you have no ideas of what to build, then you should probably change your thinking. NOW is the best time to start thinking about which direction you feel you would like to go and start working on something in that area.

Games? Security? Mobile apps? Web apps? Systems administration? The list goes on. You need to get dirty so that you start to itch. Once you start itching, let that carry you. At that point, all other questions are answered.

hendrix• 15 years ago

It doesn't matter. I'm in a similar position to yourself (although i have graduated college w/ a non EECS degree) and have chosen c++ for the challenge. It depends tho; if you want to do webapps by all means learn ROR/python, if you want to do low-level suff then c/c++.

phektus• 15 years ago

just build something yo'

it will come to you eventually

Ask HN: What language should I learn?

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