Ask HN: What Programming Languages do you use and for what?
I use Java at Work for mostly enterprise stuff.
Python for Pet Projects.
Golang out of curiosity.
C/x86 ASM for feeling elite.
I know tens of programming languages. But other than Lisp, I just can't program comfortably in any of them without having a manual beside me. Mostly because I don't want/need to.
When it comes to "fun" languages, I prefer rigor to abundance of libraries (Citeseer/LtU to github.) I will happily spend a weekend on Mozart/Oz, Scheme, ML, along with hundreds upon hundreds of research languages that I pick up to follow a given text or area of research, but quickly forget once I get a general sense of the field and I am done reading the papers.
I also dabble in J2EE and C++ stuff, from "architecture" stand points; to quickly learn new design techniques, then translate them to Lisp semantics, or usually just obviate the need for them.
Most mainstream languages bore me, and I find them lacking in quality peer-reviewed papers or ground-breaking work. So far they're just a synthesis of old ideas into a nice, accessible package, or fixes of previous short-comings. I am also idiot-intolerant; if I find a language attracts loud blowhards, corporate types, shrieking excited newbs, and generally uninformed pundits, I am more likely to avoid it just to avoid their company ..
PHP for websites I need to throw up quickly.
Javascript for browser scripting.
Bash for scripting on linux/osx.
Applescript for automating stuff on my mac that can't be done with bash.
Mathematica for heavily mathematical tasks. Sometimes Matlab to use some of its built-in library functions. I wish Mathematica supported object-oriented programming natively.
Have used others for various random tasks: ActionScript, Python, Verilog, etc.
Mathematica for research.
SuperCollider for audio work.
Played around with Haskell, Lua, Python, Oz and Erlang for fun.
My stack:
Javascript to play with Node.js
Ruby for web apps
Java for android's sake
Mirah for it's ruby-like syntax for java stuff
Used to do python a few months back
Learning Common Lisp
My next would be Haskell
P.S: There's nothing serious I'm working on right now. So most I do i try out stuff to write opensource code to show off on my resume.
C at work for supporting the old code (and at my last job for embedded systems)
Matlab at work 'cause the science phds I'm collaborating with don't know anything else
Python for most random tasks (and some analysis for myself using numpy)
Lua for extending my window manager
Haskell (just starting) for fun
Spice at my last job for circuit analysis
Python: At work, and as the backend language for my web stuffs (django & al)
Perl: Quick hacks and system scripts
Shell: System scripts where perl would be an overkill
JavaScript: as part of my personal web stuffs. Recently experimenting with node.js aswell.
I use a couple of others (Ruby, mainly) to learn them, in case I'd need them someday.
In the past I've played around a bit with Haskell, OCaml, Scheme, Smalltalk, and even Forth (again, a long time ago!). I've looked at Erlang a little, but haven't gotten around to doing anything with it. I'm hoping to get some time to play with Rakudo (Perl 6) sometime soon, and I'm looking at whether Hackety Hack and Ruby are the right way to introduce my kids to programming.
At day job - VB for some macros in Excel - R for analysis - Java for some integration modules and helping on some enterprise apps. - Scheme for other analysis and generating certain visualizations. - Bash scripts
Every job I've had I keep coming back to Unix scripting. It's just the one language that I need to always know and I constantly come back to it. I used to work on a wide smattering of very ancient Unix boxes so I had to get comfy with ksh. I use awk and sed daily just for wading through source code.
I used to spend every day coding in the scripting language for the Ameritech ISDN bulk call generator. I still have nightmares. It was like a cross between BASIC and assembly only it ran on an Intel 8086. This was in the late 90's still.
Every once in a while someone tells me I need to learn TCL. But so far I've avoided it.
Javascript: Front end UI and plugin API development (work)
C: How fast can I do this? (whenever needed)
C++/Java/Flash: Games (made a good 3D game in a Java applet - check out arcade.connersc.com)
PHP: Freelance client work
(edit: formatting)
- Perl for scripts and a documentation tool (work)
- Scala for fun little projects (fun)
- C/C++/C# for small things just to keep my skills up (fun)
- Shell for portable scripts and such (work & fun)
C# at work(some new projects)
python at work (automate stuff basically shell scripts for windows)
Haskell at home small projects.
C++ at home for working on games.
I also use Javascript for jQuery, and for Node.js in my spare time.
javascript + jquery for front end work.
sometimes AS3 but not lately.
working on erlang as couchdb has become increasingly important to my work.
D - for cross platform desktop applications I'm developing.
Learning Scala for the future and planning to use Vala for GTK apps.