Delete comment from: Javarevisited
@Javin - IMO there are two (positive) reasons a language could be notable; your list seems to be focused of the second type: useful ones. Would you agree?
1) languages that teach a programmer insights, methods or novel ways to look at programming -- whether or not useful in practical uses, and
2) languages that are powerful, flexible and practical enough to be useful for real applications; ones to know to get things accomplished, or to get a job.
Of course, some fit into both categories.
@anonymous [1-Sep-15] - Rob G is completely right on every count.
3. Re-read Javin's comment that starts with "C is the one language I..." this is very, very true. For C, even beyond inter-op, I would say (and knowledgeable hiring managers probably agree) that if you can't grok C then your versatility, depth and usefulness as a programmer is limited. Whether you apply it or not, the insights needed to be a decent/good C programmer will transfer and make you better overall.
4. Anyone who doesn't know Python is considerably less useful to me, although I agree it's not that performant. But for PHP and Ruby -- when I'm looking at a FOSS project and see that it's written in Ruby or PHP I would probably dismiss it and keep looking. My experience leads me to believe that (1) PHP is dying and (2) Ruby is the new Visual Basic - used by those with limited experience and insufficient attention to quality.
@Javin, @Diego - TCL was very useful, but I wouldn't put it on the top 10; it's kind of tedious to use. We used to use it as a testing framework for a complex C product; since TCL pretty easy to get bindings for C code and test it that way. I wish Python could link to C code more easily.
Oct 2, 2015, 5:31:55 PM
Posted to Top 5 Programming Languages Beginners should Learn in 2025 [UPDATED]