4 ms·

These lists always seem a bit silly to me. It seems to be an attempt at being hip rather than a practical list. I thoroughly enjoy Haskell and Erlang, but I'm

by brent 18y ago

These lists always seem a bit silly to me. It seems to be an attempt at being hip rather than a practical list. I thoroughly enjoy Haskell and Erlang, but I'm not sure they are languages anyone "should know". My list would be more like (pick one from each): 1. C 2. Python, perl, or ruby 3. Matlab or R 4. Common Lisp or Scheme 5. A fifth sufficiently different language, but with worthy concepts: Erlang, Haskell, O'caml, Prolog, Lua, Javascript, etc... The choices in the first 4 don't matter too terribly much and the selection of a single language from #5 would largely be based on your own personal interests.

wanorris 18y ago
If you want to really be well versed in programming techniques, it's worth learning a statically-typed functional language -- Haskell, OCaml, SML, or similar. This will teach you techniques you won't commonly see anywhere else. I wouldn't say you need to learn one of these, but I wouldn't say you need to know Matlab, or Lisp/Scheme either. Just that learning different programming styles will make you a better programmer. Prolog and Erlang reputedly have this property as well, but they're still in my to-learn queue, so I can't speak first hand about them. Also, unless you never plan on going near the web, JavaScript is pretty much a necessity these days.
tlrobinson 18y ago
Your list seems just as "hip" as his list.
- brent 18y ago
  Why do you say that? Which part is hip? If my #5 were my list I could understand the comment, but my list is much more reasonable than the post. I use c, python, and matlab on a near daily basis for work so they are all quite practical. I think Scheme/Lisp are important to learn even if you'll never explicitly use them. The pl in 5 are useful depending on your domain, but I certainly wouldn't list these items as all being important to learn.
  - evgen 18y ago
    I would venture to say that Matlab/R are completely superfluous for most programmers. Few of us do hardcore number crunching, and for those few times it is necessary add-ons like NumPy take care of the problem. Someone considering your list would be better off dropping the Matlab/R choice and replacing it with Javascript.
  - tlrobinson 18y ago
    I didn't think either list was "hip", I just meant that your list wasn't very different than his, except seemingly arbitrary substitutions based on what you happen to use. He explicitly states: Note that I’m not necessarily advocating using any of these languages for a real project, but I believe that learning them will make you a better programmer in whatever language you do use. I do think the original list was better, since Erlang, Haskell, and Prolog shouldn't be lumped together in the "different" category, Javascript could be considered part of the Python/Ruby/Perl class, and I question the usefulness of learning MATLAB unless you actually need it.
    - brent 18y ago
      It isn't arbitrary at all. I think people should know a compiled language (procedural), a scripting language, a numerical computing language (w/ vectorized notation), and a functional language. I think its completely excessive for the average programmer to know Haskell AND Erlang AND Prolog AND Smalltalk. Do you think people should know all of those? I see advantages to learning each, but I think my list would take the average person a bit further.
AndyKelley 18y ago
Prolog is disgusting. I wouldn't recommend it.

by brent 18y ago

wanorris 18y ago

If you want to really be well versed in programming techniques, it's worth learning a statically-typed functional language -- Haskell, OCaml, SML, or similar. This will teach you techniques you won't commonly see anywhere else. I wouldn't say you need to learn one of these, but I wouldn't say you need to know Matlab, or Lisp/Scheme either. Just that learning different programming styles will make you a better programmer. Prolog and Erlang reputedly have this property as well, but they're still in my to-learn queue, so I can't speak first hand about them. Also, unless you never plan on going near the web, JavaScript is pretty much a necessity these days.

tlrobinson 18y ago

Your list seems just as "hip" as his list.

brent 18y ago
Why do you say that? Which part is hip? If my #5 were my list I could understand the comment, but my list is much more reasonable than the post. I use c, python, and matlab on a near daily basis for work so they are all quite practical. I think Scheme/Lisp are important to learn even if you'll never explicitly use them. The pl in 5 are useful depending on your domain, but I certainly wouldn't list these items as all being important to learn.
- evgen 18y ago
  I would venture to say that Matlab/R are completely superfluous for most programmers. Few of us do hardcore number crunching, and for those few times it is necessary add-ons like NumPy take care of the problem. Someone considering your list would be better off dropping the Matlab/R choice and replacing it with Javascript.
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  I didn't think either list was "hip", I just meant that your list wasn't very different than his, except seemingly arbitrary substitutions based on what you happen to use. He explicitly states: Note that I’m not necessarily advocating using any of these languages for a real project, but I believe that learning them will make you a better programmer in whatever language you do use. I do think the original list was better, since Erlang, Haskell, and Prolog shouldn't be lumped together in the "different" category, Javascript could be considered part of the Python/Ruby/Perl class, and I question the usefulness of learning MATLAB unless you actually need it.
  - brent 18y ago
    It isn't arbitrary at all. I think people should know a compiled language (procedural), a scripting language, a numerical computing language (w/ vectorized notation), and a functional language. I think its completely excessive for the average programmer to know Haskell AND Erlang AND Prolog AND Smalltalk. Do you think people should know all of those? I see advantages to learning each, but I think my list would take the average person a bit further.

AndyKelley 18y ago

Prolog is disgusting. I wouldn't recommend it.