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I like collecting programming languages. What is your favorite programming language? Why?

Trent1967b 4 Mar 2
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2

LISP, Forth, SNOBOL4
They were ground-breaking and under-appreciated at the time.

Lisp is still used. It is the reason Autocad has survived and thrived. If you like Lisp, you should try the Emacs editor, which is a Lisp development environment that can modify your editing experience. I did a lot of COBOL programming, and used Emacs. I made a COBOL mode for Emacs that helped me, for example colorizing key words, matching parenthesis, and other things. It was not very good, COBOL is too irregular, so I didn't release it into the public domain.

Forth had its heyday for a while. I think HP calculators used it or a similar language.

Snobol is interesting, but didn't become very popular.

1

Perl.

I like duct tape solutions.

Q: why is that Perl programmer slacking off while everyone else is working?

A: because he finished his work already.

1

When I was in high school, I had the option of continuing with German IV second semester or Pascal programing. I took Object Pascal. The first modular language I had ever used. Had a blast with it. An acquaintance of ours developed the first Hand To Hand combat game I had ever seen (a weird version of mortal combat, sorta) which, if he had a money mind, would have made him a bazillionaire.

I did lots of work with Turbo Pascal, which introduced the first IDE into programming. I haven't seen Object Pascal before, but it makes sense someone would do it.

I have a book on turbo pascal...and a 5 mac+'s to play around with if I ever get around to it...

1

I really like Max/MSP. It's proprietary, not that versatile (unless you know Java or C++ as well) and it could be argued that it's not truly a language, but it's fun!

1

I'm a full-stack web developer, so the scope of my programming is generally limited to websites and web applications. I like PHP for server-side scripting, largely for its ease of use, flexibility, power, and ubiquity.

1

Collecting programming languages? I don't get 🙂

My favorites are Python and MATLAB

obis Level 6 Mar 3, 2018
1

I wish I could remember more of it; COBOL.

Apparently, there's still a demand for programmers who can use the language, and banks are paying shitloads for people to maintain their systems.

It's amazing that the language is still around after almost 60 years.

JimG Level 8 Mar 3, 2018

Yes, it is popular. It started out with no-no's like computed go-to, but eventually they added features like subroutines with arguments, but they weren't used much. People preferred paragraphs without arguments.

Other languages tended to go for object orientation, but COBOL isn't likely to follow that trend.

It is amazing to have survived so long, until one considers the cost of redeveloping thousands of systems in another language. Just fixing dates circa 2000 was a major effort.

1

Being truly good at a language needs a lot of practice. How much do you actually learn for each one, or is it just meta analysis of features that draws you to it?

That's a good question. Some have a mercenary attitude, I'll code in any language that pays well. I did that. At the same time, I had personal favorites, including Lisp, C, Python and the lambda-calculus; although, I have not coded anything in the latter, and very little in Python. Yes, meta analysis of these four languages, all very different, is why I like them. Each is a work of art-technology, like spreadsheets and databases.

Often, a person attracted by languages will design their own, as I have done. It is context sensitive and has neither keywords nor fixed punctuation. Consequently, there are thousands of computer languages, but only a few are practical and popular.

1

How do acquire and collect programming languages. What are programming languages. Why do you like collecting programmming languages. I'm interested in knowing especially what interests you in such a hobby. Thanks!

A programming language is used to program a computer--to create software. The simplest programming languages are machine languages. They work with the hardware in it's native ones (on) and zeros (off). Somewhat easier are assembly languages. Then you get into languages which trained individuals who have a certain mentality understand without too much trouble. It is at that third level that most programming is still done.

I have a hard time learning natural languages, but I'm pretty good at picking up the rudiments of most programming languages.

I was a programmer, way back. My first programming job was writing assembler language, which, according to others, is 10 times more difficult than writing code in COBOL, Fortran, Lisp, and other 3rd Generation Languages 3GL. I agree, assembler is hard. COBOL, Fortran and Lisp were the first 3GL. They had quirks and flaws that I wanted to fix. So, I leaned to code in all three, and learned their dark side. Of course, I wanted to fix them, but I wasn't a language developer and my career went elsewhere. But, I was hooed on languages.

Once you learn to program in a couple of languages, they all begin to look similar, and picking up the 3rd, 4th 5th, ... is easy. When I looked at Python, it was instant love. Unfortunately, I didn't have a job writing Python.

1

Julia (not really a favorite, just one I'm trying to use)

0

I just finished a bevy of CS courses in programming, out of them all, I understood and was able to code in SQL/PL-SQL the best, was ok with VB.Net and C. C++ kicked my butt, mostly just couldn't connect with the instructor. I took the classes only to be a better QA and support person, not for programming. I would like to find a job as a SQL coder for sure though.

0

Collecting? So not learning them?

I'm a web guy so JS, PHP, etc are my current tools.

My favourite was Flash Actionscript - way ahead of its time. I could both code in Flash AS and create frame-based animatation by hand. Unfortunately, the plug-in tech was simply too easy to hack.

0

Toss up between C# and T-SQL.

0

JavaScript, because it works on everything and does not require an IDE or lengthy compiling time.
Asteroids in JavaScript
[gsc.jobs]

zrez Level 4 Mar 3, 2018
0

APL (A programming language). This was the first language I learned and when I learned other languages ☕, the first thing I did was write functions that equated to the APL primitives. You could write an entire application in a dozen lines of APL code.

0

I started out writing BASIC code on an HP-85 back in the day. I did PL/1 for a couple of years in the late 80s and enjoyed it. Anyone else worked with PL/1?

In that same timeframe I also wrote quite a bit of IBM 370 assembler code and always that it was a rather nice and not obtuse assembler.

I’ve also done (for a living ) COBOL, Fortran, C , Objective-C , a whiff of SNOBOL, Perl, Java , a bit of JavaScript when I have to , Python , R, and a couple of proprietary languages.

I also do tons of crazy SQL in my data warehouse works. I primarily write Python and R these days. Love Python and becoming fond of R/Shiny too.

Ohub Level 7 Mar 3, 2018
0

My favorites are modern OO C derivitives combined with SQL.

0

@Trent What are your favorites?

0

My favorite is Javascript (ECMA-262) but it's common and thus not collectable. For a collector, I'd suggest an obscure one like REXX. Or how about Microsoft M80 Assembler.

REXX is a good one to mention. M80 for the Z80 machine? C replaced most assembler work.

0

Simons Basic for the old commodore 64,
because it is so easy, but has more functionality than the original basic.
Dabbled in Cobol and Fortran but I am not a programmer, my head won't do it,

0

I am still a DOS man. I started with it on CompuServe before GUI's or mice. Very quaint, even though ancient!

JK666 Level 7 Mar 3, 2018

Linux command line, usually Bash, is similar to DOS because they are both have command line prompts and start utilities or applications. But, DOS is simple, and Bash is powerful and not simple. Many Linux programmers love Bash or Cshell (an alternative to Bash).

Ed, I didn't know shit back then. I know even less now!

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