4 ms·
Languages you must know #0
I've been programming full time for 50 years. I've been paid to program in 60+ languages. I've been involved in authoring 4 commercial languages. I've taught at 4 schools.
Language defines the way you think. Some languages completely change THE WAY you think.
Some languages change WHAT you can think.
Most languages are "more of the same". I don't care if a language is widely used or "a success". Python, for example, is both. But Python teaches you nothing.
Of the many languages I know, I will give highly opinionated recommendations on which languages have profoundly re-shaped the "WAY" and "WHAT" of my thinking.
For each language I will try to hint at the "way of thinking" and the fundamental idea(s) that "bend the mind in a new way".
It is an absolute, unqualified joy to learn a language that changes the way you think and even the things you "can think".
- ModernMech 6y agoThank you for listing these. I teach a PL course and try to expose students to as many paradigms as possible. To some degree I have to teach python because the students do t get it elsewhere, but I could do without it for the reasons you state. I think your list is great, but if I were to add two of my own I would include Lucid, an early data flow language; and Smalltalk. I think they fit the criteria for languages that teach you something new about the way to approach programming and language design. Thanks again.