Programming Languages

[cyrusroe]

Hello all,

From the limited research I've done on programming languages, there are a few things i'm aware of. I've read that different languages are useful for different purposes, and that programming in general doesn't rely alone on how good the language is, but rather how good the programmer is at implementing the code.

This leads to my questions.

1) What are the most popular languages among developers out there? From the searching I've done it seems that C++ and Java are the most powerful/portable/popular. Am i correct?

2) I've looked at some reviews on C based programming books but I want to get your opinions on what books a beginner like me should get. I have a VERY basic understanding of variables and data structures, but I don't understand them enough to turn them into something useful.
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ this is the site i've been looking at for the most part to learn these basics. Is there a book that will help me understand the "bigger picture" so to speak? because there is a lot of terminology that i don't understand

3a) Without having made a single program, I have noticed that I already seem to have a bias towards C, C++, etc. As someone who is going into a profession having to do with 3D modeling/visualization/animation, is my bias valid? Or should I give other languages a chance?
3b)Maya is coded in C++, isn't it?

As always, thanks for your time and advise.

 

[kirock]

Programming languages are as many as human languages so it's not possible to really answer "What's the best". Like natural languages, program languages (PLs) each have their own advantages and disadvantages (French for example).

I might say the biggest move in general in PLs is Object Oriented langauges (OOL), of which C++ and JAVA are a small part of that set. Another fairly useful, but sometimes "awkward" and "clumsey" OOL is VisualBasic. All OOLs deal with Class Modules which consist of Properties and Attributes, or LET and GET actions. Within these languages you can create an example of an Object (a prewritten class module registered within the language) and then set it to a value from a local or global variable. Or act upon some local or global variable with a LET action.

Anyway it seems you are on a similar track of thinking as you have already identified C++ and JAVA as popular and powerful langauges.

Here's a link to some basics of OOLs: http://www.rescomp.berkeley.edu/~hossman/cs263/paper.html

Cheers.

 

[Tedster]

jeeze oh man.....

At last count there were at least 137

1. ABC
2. ACSL
3. Ada
4. Alef
5. Algol
6. Algol68
7. APL
8. AppleScript
9. Autolisp
10. Awk
11. BASIC
12. BCPL
13. Befunge
14. BETA
15. BLISS
16. BLooP
17. C
18. C#
19. C*
20. C++
21. Cecil
22. CFML
23. CHILL
24. Cilk
25. CLAIRE
26. Clean
27. CLU
28. CMS-2
29. COBOL
30. Common Lisp
31. Concurrent Clean
32. Concurrent Pascal
33. CORAL 66
34. CorelScript
35. csh
36. CSP
37. cT
38. Curry
39. Dylan
40. Dynace
41. Eiffel
42. Elisp
43. Erlang
44. Escher
45. Esterel
46. Euphoria
47. FLooP
48. FORMAC
49. Forms/3
50. Forth
51. FORTRAN
52. FP
53. Goedel
54. GPSS
55. Haskell
56. Hope
57. HyperTalk
58. ICI
59. Icon
60. INTERCAL
61. Interlisp
62. J
63. Java
64. JavaScript
65. Jovial
66. Leda
67. LIFE
68. Limbo
69. Lingo
70. Lisp
71. Logo
72. LotusScript
73. Lua
74. Lucid
75. M
76. Magma
77. Mathematica
78. Mawl
79. Mercury
80. Miranda
81. ML
82. Modula 3
83. Modula-2
84. MUMPS
85. NESL
86. NIAL
87. Oberon
88. Objective-C
89. Obliq
90. occam
91. OPS5
92. Orca
93. Oz
94. Pascal
95. PerfectScript
96. Perl
97. PHP
98. Pict
99. Pike
100. Pilot
101. PL/C
102. PL/I
103. Postscript
104. Prolog
105. Python
106. QBasic
107. Quake-C
108. REBOL
109. Reduce
110. Rexx
111. RPG
112. Ruby
113. S
114. Sather
115. Scheme
116. Self
117. SETL
118. sh
119. Simscript
120. SIMULA
121. Sina
122. SISAL
123. SLAM
124. Smalltalk
125. SML
126. SNOBOL
127. SPARCL
128. SPITBOL
129. T
130. Tcl
131. TECO
132. Telescript
133. Terse
134. TeX
135. Theta
136. Turing
137. UFO
138. Until
139. VBScript
140. VHDL
141. Visual Basic
142. WordBasic
143. xlisp
144. Yorick
145. ZPL

 

[RealBlackStuff]

You seem to have it summed up already, C++ and Java.
Java is mainly used for web-content creation.
C++ would be your best bet, do a Google with c++ for dummies for an easy book to start with.

 

[Nodsu]

Your forgot the most important question.. What do you want to do?

If you want to "program" as in "make trivial graphical programs using drag and drop", then you can use Visual C++ or Visual Basic in Windows or Java in any OS.

If you want to "program" as in see what programming is about, then you should start the hard way and use some compiled programming language without a GUI. C, C++ and Java are still good options.

If you want to "program" as in solving some practical everyday problems, then you should use VB in Windows or any of the interpreted languages in Unix like Perl, Python, Ruby or whatever.

If you want to "program" as in do tricks on webpages, then you should look at PHP or Perl.


And yes, programming skills have nothing to do with the language. A good programmer can solve most problems using almost any programming language.

 

[cyrusroe]

So, am I probably correct in thinking that Alias/Autodesk Maya is made in C++, or is it possible to make such a program with other languages?

Also, I'm a Windows user currently, however I want to understanding Linux because of its open source advantage. If and when I get into render farms then it'll save a LOT of money by installing Linux for free on each machine.

 

[DelJo63]

After many years in the industry, qualifiers like BEST, FASTEST, EASIEST to learn
do not provide much guidance. The bigger issues are (1) the environment in which you work
and (2) where the program is to be applied. By (1) I mean, the corporate world works in
teams and has what they call infrastructure to perform documentation, testing, packaging and delivery.
They will expect you to fit their mold and not to insist on your choices, whereas working by yourself
allows you total freedom. By (2) I mean that the hardware platform (Intel, Mac, Linux, Digital Signal Processors)
may require specific choices when you get into the lower levels (eg: to date there is no OS written in Java).

Modern commercial programming is usually done in Object Orient Languages
(C++, Java) and procedural languages (C) are less frequently used and often disdained.
Interpretive languages (Shell scripts, Perl, PHP) are ok but usually only used
for tasks that are not 'production or client oriented'