If You Could Only Learn 3 Languages - RESULTS | Hacker News Reader

If You Could Only Learn 3 Languages - RESULTS

java.dzone.com

21 pointsGarbage34 comments

Please note that this survey has been done by a Java community website.

I strongly suspect that other sites, like Hacker News for example, would generate different results with a different leading language.

While I agree, what's maybe more interesting is that a community of Java users would "do it all over again". Could be blub programmers not being able to see up the chain, could be normal human comfort tendencies, but it could also be "legit".

I find it more interesting that in a Java community, 30% didn't choose Java as one of their 3 languages.

Maybe some interpreted the question as If You Could Only Learn 3 Programming Languages... besides what you already know.

Seconded. How many programming languages would have nearly a third of their community not choose to learn them again?

Agreed. There are lots of these language surveys. You can find aggregates through http://langpop.com/

For example, PHP is highest on Craigslist's job ads. Javascript wins on Delicious's bookmarks. As someone mentions in another comment here, Ruby takes the top spot on GitHub.

These language surveys indicate more about the community a particular site has than anything else.

p.s. The TIOBE index is another aggregation: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....

Do you know of a good poll site? You could test your hypothesis.

http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

Although I think the choices are exclusive (no "choose three"). Also, I believe you need a minimum karma.

https://github.com/languages

If the language you are interested in isn't in the top 10, you can still find out how popular it is on GitHub. Just click on your language in the list under "All Languages" on the right side of the page. You will discover, for instance, that "FORTRAN is the #32 most popular language on GitHub".

Thank you. "Scala is the #17 most popular language on GitHub" is what I was looking for.

Does anyone know how this "most popular languages" list is calculated? I can imagine several methods:

* Number of projects containing a language. * Number of projects having most of the code in a language. * Lines of code in a language. * Number of users having a language in some repository.

Plus there is this whole forking thing going on...

Here's the rest of top 22, from

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872237

objective-C, C#, emacs lisp

actionScript, haskell, lua

scala, clojure, ASP

erlang, common Lisp, groovy

Github is biased as well, but towards Ruby and web developers rather than Java, and (somewhat) toward small / personal projects.

This shows more who finds dzone useful than anything else.

A poll on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1983229

Hmmm... Unlike a lot of responses here, I generally agree with the results. I might not have order the top 3 that way, but I think those are the right top 3.

Java: Standard issue, wickedly popular, object-oriented compiled language. You gotta learn on sometime. Gentler than C/C++, open-er than C#. Gets you onto the JVM and all of its languages. Not surprising that a Java community picked this first, but it was also the right pick (and I'm no fan of Java).

Javascript: browser. Say no more.

Python: scripting. Great libraries, support from Google, etc.

Even though I really like functional languages, they're something that can be studied while you're not earning your living (and learning them will make you better at earning your living!).

Ocaml wasn't even an option...

I guess SQL wasn't an option.

I can't imagine how anyone could function in an enterprise setting without understanding SQL. Whatever you're using for your app -- C#, Java, etc. -- the database is still a common denominator. Despite the fashionability of NoSQL, the old-fashioned relational DB with a SQL interface is still ubiquitous.

I'd go for C++, if you're really good at C++, picking up Java, C# & ObjC will be a matter of a couple days each. That and Python.

I'm sorry, but a language for which a fully-compliant compiler takes a decade to write is horribly broken.

(Computer) languages should not inspire "puzzle books". Too often I'll see colleagues scratching their heads wondering why a piece of code works a certain way, or why something doesn't work the way it's supposed to.

Languages are a tool to get things done. The more time you spend lost in the entrails of a language, the more you're wasting your time.

I don't think C++ would give you a good grounding for a language like C#; too much emphasis on manual memory allocation, and insufficient exposure to higher-level abstractions, like lambdas and monads (as IEnumerable<T> effectively is).

It all depends on the type of C++ you are writing. It is such a vast language that usage patterns can range anywhere from C90 plus declare-where-used and single line comments to something that in practice isn't a whole lot different than C#. Modern C# includes RAII-like idioms with using statements and IDisposable replacing C++'s destructors, and C++ manages to fake garbage collection using smart pointers.

It's not an ideal basis but there are worse languages to learn before coming to C#; it might even be easier for C++ programmers to move to C# and begin working comfortably than Java programmers.

Maybe. Manual memory allocation is no longer a best practice for "normal" C++ projects, and I'm not sure how much easier C#'s syntax for higher-level abstractions is relative to template metaprogramming. Both are convoluted, obviously.

Are smart pointers the accepted alternative or are you talking about real garbage collection?

In what way are lambdas convoluted?

C++0x, which already has a few partial implementations (including VS2010's), does have lambdas.

Would love to see a survey like this on HN

Your wish has been granted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1983229

This survey is for 3 new languages. Wouldn't it be more interesting to see what 3 languages people would pick if they could only work with the three they chose? Basically, what, in your mind, are the three most essential languages?

It depends whether I'm considering what would best for my career, or what I would personally prefer to work with. For the former C/Java/Javascript, for the latter C/Python/Scala.

It would be more useful if the survey asked "Which 3 languages do you wish you could use at your day job"

I'd say to be fluent in the first 3 or 4 languages would be quite a good repertoire.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com