For hardcore programmers: What programming language did you enjoy the most?

Question

I guess you have used at least half a dozen programming languages until now... which have you enjoyed the most? I guess there are some Lisp and Forth freaks still around.

I personally (with 20+ years experience) still like to work with assembly when I can... and recalled the joy when I pushed the turtle around in Logo.

Answer 1

C is my "native language", that I learned real programming in, and I have always appreciated it as a very clean design that fulfills its design purpose in an efficient way.

Of course it depends for what, but elisp (emacs lisp) is a great tool for doing almost anything. Good Lisp programming is an art form. I was with a company that had an AI CAD system written in Lisp (an 80 MB Lisp program!). The code in that system was just amazing.

Coding in APL is like doing neat math problems, that is a lot of fun. MACRO-11 (DEC PDP assembler) is a really tight, well designed language - I have often thought that if I were to teach a programming course I would find a PDP-11 (or emulate one) and have the students learn that - it is a simple assembly language, much easier to learn than the more complicated ones in modern machines.

I really enjoyed TECO. Does anyone else even remember it? It was the ancestor of emacs, and useful for doing multifile edits. Everything in it was a puzzle.

But, in the end I can't really say which I enjoy the most. When I think back on different projects in different languages there are some projects in different ones which I am really proud of.

It is easier to say what I don't like so much:

C++ : yes, I appreciate it for what it can do, but it is a kludgy extension of C, not nearly so clean as Java. It still doesn't give full OO power (compare it, for instance, to Franz Lisp). It is a lot of compromises to give most of the power of OO without a loss of speed, and it is very successful at that. It is not aesthetic, though.

Perl: lots and lots of rope to hang yourself with.

Answer 2

I've had the privlege of learning and using QuickBasic, Watcom Basic, Visual Basic 6 and .Net, C and C++, Java, Pascal, Fortran, Javascript, PHP, Assembly (RISC and Motorola), C#, SQL, and some others that slip my mind i think.

You know, when playing with them while growing up i notice that they are all incremental of each other (they are all based on each other). It is as if the creators of the newer language copied the older one. And so really, the best language is in the realm of the newest languages simply because they incorporate the best of the older ones and newer ideas and methodologies relevant to our time today (e.g. they undertstand Internet).

Before the internet got popular i would have said C++ but because the internet is here C++ is a relic and should DIE. Although logical and powerful it is not entirely easy and can be frustrating to use when trying to deal with problems of "today". But of the past, the best language of all had to be C and C++ ... i have to include both because C++ wouldnt be C++ without C and C was just revolutionary!

But my real answer when you take everything into consideration today is .... (drum roll) .... C# (Microsoft's version of Java). It takes all the beauty of Java and C++ and makes things easier and elegant. It is insanely powerful and is the step in the right direction for future languages.

The one product that Microsoft is good at is development tools...Visual Studio is by far the best development studio ever and to have the ability to program under any language in the Visual Studio environment (and even mulitple langugaes into one executable file) and even under different types of projects (e.g. make a web app you use C#...make a stand-alone app use C#...communicate to a database use C#....you learn one language and you can do anything).

Answer 3

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Answer 4

I would have to say assembly. I used it on 8 bit microprocessors and it got to be very challenging to get some of the stuff to work. We eventually had to switch to C, when the programms got so big the compiler crashed.

Answer 5

hmm....let me think....C++ is the fastest and the most viable programming language i've tried.
When I'm fooling around I like Brainfuck :D
Lisp is good for AI, but I like Prolog more.

Answer 6

after several language i've try, i enjoy delphi and java (script)

Answer 7

C++, organized, clarified and reusable.