New programming lang to jump into.

[Schotty]

I need to go do more programming. I suck now at almost everything, however C++ and Pascal and 6502 Assembly are still good in my mind. Perl and python skills are at an all time low. I havent touched ruby, LISP, java, or Tk/Tcl.

What ya think?

[Ashcrow]

Perl, Java, and Ruby are my picks.

C++ and/or Java

[Schotty]

I was thinking Java or Tcl/Tk personally. But I am unsure exactly... Dammmit!!!

definitely give Java a shot.
a lot of people are constantly claiming java is too slow to be good and all of that crap. but java is truelly an excellent development environment. when ur using Java GUI's however, it will be slow as hell and i personally don't like the idea of Java GUI's because of this. However, when it comes to server-side applications, the performance of Java isn't really that bad.

imagine this: if ur gonna develop a distributed system, java is the ideal solution. using EJB and J2EE will make it very easy to do (well, easier than other languages i mean). As a business manager what would u rather do? Buy a couple of fast servers so the performance isn't a problem, choose Java and maybe spend a month (maybe even 2) less developing the whole thing?

or don't spend money on better hardware and spend more time developing using a more performant language?

i think we all know that hardware is cheaper than developers...

[GnuVince]

Ruby, Lisp or O'Caml.

[Schotty]

[quote author=Ralinx link=board=9;threadid=4304;start=0#42616 date=1027462589]
definitely give Java a shot.
a lot of people are constantly claiming java is too slow to be good and all of that crap. but java is truelly an excellent development environment. when ur using Java GUI's however, it will be slow as hell and i personally don't like the idea of Java GUI's because of this. However, when it comes to server-side applications, the performance of Java isn't really that bad.

imagine this: if ur gonna develop a distributed system, java is the ideal solution. using EJB and J2EE will make it very easy to do (well, easier than other languages i mean). As a business manager what would u rather do? Buy a couple of fast servers so the performance isn't a problem, choose Java and maybe spend a month (maybe even 2) less developing the whole thing?

or don't spend money on better hardware and spend more time developing using a more performant language?

i think we all know that hardware is cheaper than developers...
[/quote]

I agree, Java is cool. I like the idea, and IBM proves that Java can do applications very easily, with a little bit of talent.

I just need to get my mind back into the swing of things. I havent done C++ for a VERY long time -- a few odd apps here and there, but rather weak on the demanded skills. Doing a recursive file rename is C++ is simple. Doing an MP3 app is not, and thats whre I want to be. Java seems natural to progress on to. But my perl and python skills have stayed at beginner. I havent touched ruby or o'caml at all. I hear they rock.

I want to do a few front ends to a few apps that are CLI only. The apps are great, but I just want the speed of a GUI. Java comes to mind. But I say that python is pretty good too..

For simple frontends what do y'all have to say? I dont care if the language has a learning curve, I jsut want something that will prove useful in the future as well. thats why perl/python came to mind instaed of the usual Java/C that I usually think of.

Thanks much guys for the suggestions !

[GnuVince]

O'Caml is very different from Java. Java is a mix of OO and procedural programming. O'Caml has those two, but its most important paradigm is the functional one, and that's O'Caml's true strength. For example, in O'Caml, a uniq function (function that will remove duplicates from a list) can be written very easily:

let rec uniq l = match l with
    | [] -> []
    | h::t -> if List.mem h t then h::uniq (List.filter ((<>) h) t)
              else h::uniq t;;

I don't know how to do it in a procedural style, because it's easier to think of this function in a functional way.

[Schotty]

Good point. Is O'Caml, cross platform? I was hoping to perhaps get a cross platformer in. That would be godlike.

[quote author=GnuVince link=board=9;threadid=4304;start=0#42625 date=1027463724]
Java is a mix of OO and procedural programming.
[/quote]

no, Java is OO-only
u can do procedural programming with it, but u can do that with every language if u want to, just like u can do OO with C if u want to

but Java was designed to only be used in OO programming