Programming

[budrick]

I'm curious - how many of us are programmers and what are your preferred languages and toolkits?

I'm not going to bother with a poll, because there are so very many languages out there, and often targeted at entirely different markets. Multiple answers and explanations are welcome :)

Myself? Well, I suppose my greatest experience is in Delphi for Windows GUI programming, and PHP (http://www.php.net) for Web programming. I've since started moving away from those two, however, in favour of Python (http://www.python.org) and wxWidgets (http://www.wxwidgets.org) for "client-side" apps, and I'm rebuilding my knowledge of Perl (http://ww.perl.org) for Web server-side stuff.

If I could use Python all the time I would. It's a rockin' language, but because it's not everywhere at the moment there are problems distributing apps, and it's not suitable for tiny utilities under Windows as you have to either distribute the whole Python package or use py2exe (http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/py2exe/) to create a bundle including the python interpreter and auxiliary libraries you happen to use (the official Bittorrent client for Windows is distributed this way). If I need to write tiny Windows things, I stick to C or C++ (usually Visual C++).

For Unix one-liners that do a surprising amount, you can't beat Bourne Shell or bash, with perhaps a little inline Perl. You can do some pretty funky stuff.

[Al2]

Bash is a scripting language ;)

I prefer C++, simply because it's the only one I know. Sure, I know Java, but it's not very versatile; there's no memory management or operator overloading, so it's only suitable for ... well, for the things it's designed for. Cross-platform compatibility in small memory-light applications or utilities.

I can't fucking stand Perl, though. It's like being dragged face-first through a thorn bush. This is probably because I have a good grounding in PHP to start with, and Perl is just PHP with more symbols and less coherance, IMHO.

PHP rocks.

[Lewiji]

I'm taking a course in C++, I have tried at least 5 or 6 times to learn from those "LEARN C++ IN A WEEKEND OMG!!" CDs but they just rush things and miss bits out. I nice 10 week, 3 hour lesson course is what is in order.

I also know a bit of PHP, I can still remember BASIC from the Amiga ;)

I also don't like Perl much, a lot of it just doesn't make sense to me, I guess it's like learning Spanish after being an English teacher for 40 years, putting things in the wrong order to sound right in the other language is difficult.

Edit: Oh, DOS batch too, easiest language ever ;) And I make very quick apps when I want to do some kind of looping task or whatever in a program called multimedia fusion 1.5, simply because it's easier. Although it doesn't really count as programming, there's no typing involved, just set commands (through plugins) and variables.

[Stringy Pete]

Thanks to the wonders of Warwick University I am learning quite a few languages at the same time. Know a fair bit of Java, and a little C. Also doing some Python, some shell scripting, and some low level machine code which can be rather annoying.
Also know a bit of Visual Basic, but thats a bit sucky so I tend to forget I know it :D

[Lagmeister]

Well, I know some Visual Basic, its ingrained into my head as I had to get it to work together with access (I know crazy, two microsoft based programs working together, well they didnt thats why I remember it), and thanks to my university course I can do some Java (currently annoyed at as I cant get some of it to work for no apparent reason), I know haskell pretty well now, and I know a tiny bit of Occam.
So far I prefer Haskall, as its piss easy to pick up and use (not greatly versitile, but damn good at what it does for what I have used it for anyway), java can be an absolute bitch at times for no reason.

[Al2]

Lew, if you need C++ guidance, feel free to call on me.

That said, I can only help with generic stuff. If it's an API you're stuck on you'll have to ask the knowledge base :)

[budrick]

I know haskell pretty well now, and I know a tiny bit of Occam.

Ooh, now Occam I don't know. I haven't actually used Haskell, but I have use Miranda and comparing books on both languages they appear more or less identical (although Miranda seems more pure in terms of functional programming)

So far I prefer Haskall, as its piss easy to pick up and use (not greatly versitile, but damn good at what it does for what I have used it for anyway), java can be an absolute bitch at times for no reason.

This is why I love Python. At its heart it's object-oriented (like Java), but allows procedural programming methods (like C), and has a lot of functional constructs built in (like Haskell) :) I'm sure someone'll bitch about the fact that whitespace is significant in Python but that takes about 10 minutes to get used to.

[Al2]

But whitespace is significant in Python and that means you can't lay it out how you would like!!1omfgnoob.

Honestly, I didn't even know that. :) I just felt obliged.

[Lewiji]

I'm sure someone'll bitch about the fact that whitespace is significant in Python but that takes about 10 minutes to get used to.

That's why I never bothered picking it up-I'm a much too messy programmer!

[Stringy Pete]

I'm sure someone'll bitch about the fact that whitespace is significant in Python but that takes about 10 minutes to get used to.
I love it, as I'm quite an anal programmer when it comes to layout, so it suits my style of indentation perfectly :D

[Patrick Moore]

nerds :ninja:

[Al2]

My indentations look like this:

rtype Class::Function(args) modifiers
{
//one tab. Spaces suck.
type variable;
//etc
}

Anything else is treachery. Symbian is therefore a heretical OS with heretical standards.

[RobW]

nerds :ninja:
QFT.


I stick to good ol' html really but I guess I could give php a blast if I concentrated an Albert or two.

[grooveBiscuit]

PHP is my main language at the moment. I've dabbled in C++,C and - perish the thought - VB (I was MADE to :( ).

I have also had the misfortune of using Perl - that's one language that really gives me headaches. Java is something I've never had chance to play with yet but it's a possibility for our next project at work so I'll probably get to play around with that at some point.

[edit] ASP also sucks major bums!

[budrick]

If people say they've used VB I don't think anyone'll mind, A-level computing is a bastard for stupid languages :)

I had to use VB too. They stopped using Turbo Pascal (which I loved) the year I started college, and after I spent all summer learning it beforehand.

Oh, and HTML isn't programming. Sorry RobW!

[RobW]

I lose.

:frowny:

[wyrd_fish]

i'm prett competent with java and more pretty awsome with php, it being my first love an' all

actually, noy used php much in teh last 2 years, i'm quite rusty

PS hand coding GUIs sucks balls, and takes hours

PPS i've dabbled in alot of other languages

[budrick]

PS hand coding GUIs sucks balls, and takes hours

Python and wxPython (http://www.wxpython.org/). Hand-code in no time, or even use GUI builders to generate code for you :)

[Al2]

i'm prett competent with java and more pretty awsome with php, it being my first love an' all

actually, noy used php much in teh last 2 years, i'm quite rusty

PS hand coding GUIs sucks balls, and takes hours

PPS i've dabbled in alot of other languages
I hope you spell-check your code more than you spell-check your posts :D

[wyrd_fish]

me and spelling don't mix... :(

many's the time i get symbol not found errors in my java

[Al2]

You should use an IDE that underlines spelling errors. That is, they underline a symbol if it's not been declared in scope. Quite handy.

[Timmeh]

I prefer to program in C++ but I've done C, C+, Visual basic (damn you college A level), VBnet, Perl, Java, HTML, PHP, Tomcat, Pascal, and a personal favourite, machine code hexidecimal :D who loves error debugging in hex ¬_¬. There are more I've done at some stage or another, but either don't know well enough to mention or haven't done for so long I've forgotten about :)

I used to enjoy taking the piss of VB in college by giving all variables stupid names :D

If Fred < Jeff and Bob <= 1 then exit sub

:D

[nickspoon]

Ooh, yes. Programming. Let me see... For web scripting it has got to be PHP. I kinda like VB, but can't do much with it. For anything with not much visual, I tend to use QB.

[edit] I'm scared of C. It's an odd language to me. *shiver*

[wyrd_fish]

You should use an IDE that underlines spelling errors. That is, they underline a symbol if it's not been declared in scope. Quite handy.
i do :(

[ash]

You should all use Eclipse. I feel the love for it daily.

[DarkTrojan]

VHDL anyone?





/me runs

[RobW]

Is there a programming language for every 5 people on earth?


<?php

$ip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];

echo "your ip is $ip";

?>

Everyone has to start somewhere, so I'm starting using that, it be the sexeh code, you can probably guess what it does. If you don't you are seriously retarded.


Edit: Xanga (http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=monsur&tab=weblogs&uid=231007067) is looking for programmers, if anyone's interested. Sorry for posting crap.

[wyrd_fish]

it's not all that reliable though,as it uses teh info from teh http header, which is optional, infact norton bolcks it and stops all those fancy sigs like yours from working

(and mine, when it had a referer check)

[RobW]

You could give an alert in the script saying you need not interfere with the info from the http header and to have Norton off.

I was actually wondering why my fancy sig hadn't been updated since the time I put it on, thanks.

[Zen]

Why does nobody think of C#.... I, personally, love it. Even though im no good at it and my knowledge of it is pretty limited. Its a great and easy language to pick up though.

[Al2]

You should all use Eclipse. I feel the love for it daily.
I concur! I used to use Netbeans because the uni gave it to us on a CD and then I got Eclipse and Netbeans is actually shite. \o/