What programming language should I learn?

[sunnysan]

What language

IMHO, you should maybe look at groovy, ruby and python and associated proprietary frameworks EG Django, Grails, Ruby on rails etc as this seems to be a growth area and would be profitable knowledge to have, but then again, not exactly mind-bendingly stimulating


As others have said, learn a language German/Russian etc, as I dont know if you have tried to get a job in the EU just speaking English but ATM , is not easy.

By learning German/French etc you will be more competitive in EU, which is usefull in case the UK goes up the swannee, which is doubtful though, under the sound fiscal leadership of global saviour Gordon Brown.

[sasguru]

Some interesting suggestions so far.
One thing that may sway me in a particular direction is the quality of the documentation e.g. if there is a classic K&R stylee book.

[d000hg]

Python and Ruby both have small amounts of commercial use, but are popular with many programmers and I'd suggest they will only grow in popularity as the compilers/interpreters get faster and average PC specs continue to grow. They should meet the 'not like C++/Java' criteria too.

You could learn something like Haskell/F# if you really want to just broaden your horizons about programming. There are a very few jobs using them but a few specialist areas. F# can access the .net libraries also and interop with more traditional .net langauges easily.

[Sysman]

Yes was thinking that. Am reasonably fluent in VBA already.
I hate C++ though, dabbled in it years ago.

I managed to avoid C++ for years but quite like Objective-C plus Cocoa. It's the power of Apple's frameworks that I like.

The documentation is pretty good and there are plenty of examples available.

[NickFitz]

With an eye to the future: Python. The online documentation and tutorials allow you to get going very quickly, and it's a fun language. If you fancy getting into web apps, Django is an excellent web applications framework written in Python. For more general-purpose programming tasks, I can recommend O'Reilly's Python Cookbook.

With an eye to just having fun, and very little chance of having any commercial value: Forth. Starting Forth is the definitive book to get you moving, available free online. Then delve into Thinking Forth, which is one of the best books I've read about programming per se, not just about Forth (although reading it did make me a vastly better Forth programmer).

[sasguru]

Thanks for the all the suggestions so far. Looking up some of the languages mentioned on this thread (and remember I haven't really been "hands on" for a while) is an education in itself.

[DimPrawn]

You are too old and thick to become a modern coder sasguru. Stick to meetings and powerpoint.

HTH

[TimberWolf]

You are too old and thick to become a modern coder sasguru. Stick to meetings and powerpoint.

HTH

As harsh as that advice may sound, it's the best so far IMO. It's all about objects, templates and frameworks now rather than languages. The days of fun programming are over.

[sasguru]

You could learn something like Haskell/F# if you really want to just broaden your horizons about programming. There are a very few jobs using them but a few specialist areas. F# can access the .net libraries also and interop with more traditional .net langauges easily.

I looked up Haskell. Looks interesting for a variety of reasons: I used Lisp before and I like the idea of functional programming. There seem to be many compilers available - any one you'd recommend?

[sasguru]

You are too old and thick to become a modern coder sasguru. Stick to meetings and powerpoint.

HTH

Tell you what: you stick to dreaming of becoming a millionaire.
I'll keep learning fun stuff.