5 ms·

Which programming language should I learn first?

13 points by sonic0002 14y ago

xd 14y ago
"To feel depressed: SQL" SQL isn't a programming language you would learn to program general purpose programs with. It's a language to manage relational data in a database. It's not a depressing language. Depressing, is watching a programmer fight with procedural ORM when doing anything remotely complicated with data in a relational database.
- bunderbunder 14y ago
  Well, there's one bit about SQL which is depressing, and that's the way that the language has been undone by its own fragmentation. Each dialect of SQL is different enough from all the others that the lowest common denominator - the version that you can really call 'SQL' and not 'PL/SQL', 'T-SQL' or whatever - is really, really low. So most the tutorials on 'SQL' out there present the language as a dumb insertion and retrieval mechanism rather than the powerful declarative programming language for query and analytics that it really is. Meaning most programmers out there really don't know what they're losing when they choose to go with the naive approach to relational databases that ORMs encourage. I got led down that path first. And I spent a lot of time struggling with the ORM. And then somebody or something finally convinced me to take the time to learn SQL. Not that least-common-denominator crap - real SQL, the native dialect of my DBMS and all of its ins and outs. And soon after, once I had properly encapsulated the database with well-written stored procedures and all that, I dumped the ORM, because it had become the stone in the soup. And everything got so much better, so much more performant, so much easier to maintain, so quickly. And I remembered all the struggling from before, and saw that none of it had to happen. And I mourned for all the wasted time and gray hairs. I learned SQL, and it made me feel depressed.
stephengillie 14y ago
Cute.
- jhuni 14y ago
  I don't think the Cute programming language is ready to be used as a first time target for developers yet. Try scheme.
  - sonic0002 14y ago
    What is Cute programming language?
    - radicalbyte 14y ago
      It's a Cool variant designed specifically to encourage female students into Software Engineering and/or Computer Science.
      - stephengillie 14y ago
        Serious?
calibwam 14y ago
> To be a god which can do everything--Assembly A god that uses more time than necessary doing some tasks, but when they run, it's so fast.
- IsTom 14y ago
  As for current architectures, humans are really bad at writing assembly. Advanced compilers like gcc are much better at it.
mackyinc 14y ago
I started at PHP and still learning.
tzs 14y ago
FRACTRAN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN
lectrick 14y ago
> To mingle with programmers who call themselves “rockstars”: Ruby. Oh fuck off. I'm really getting tired of the Ruby backlash. It is a FINE language, better than most.

13 points by sonic0002 14y ago

xd 14y ago

"To feel depressed: SQL" SQL isn't a programming language you would learn to program general purpose programs with. It's a language to manage relational data in a database. It's not a depressing language. Depressing, is watching a programmer fight with procedural ORM when doing anything remotely complicated with data in a relational database.

bunderbunder 14y ago
Well, there's one bit about SQL which is depressing, and that's the way that the language has been undone by its own fragmentation. Each dialect of SQL is different enough from all the others that the lowest common denominator - the version that you can really call 'SQL' and not 'PL/SQL', 'T-SQL' or whatever - is really, really low. So most the tutorials on 'SQL' out there present the language as a dumb insertion and retrieval mechanism rather than the powerful declarative programming language for query and analytics that it really is. Meaning most programmers out there really don't know what they're losing when they choose to go with the naive approach to relational databases that ORMs encourage. I got led down that path first. And I spent a lot of time struggling with the ORM. And then somebody or something finally convinced me to take the time to learn SQL. Not that least-common-denominator crap - real SQL, the native dialect of my DBMS and all of its ins and outs. And soon after, once I had properly encapsulated the database with well-written stored procedures and all that, I dumped the ORM, because it had become the stone in the soup. And everything got so much better, so much more performant, so much easier to maintain, so quickly. And I remembered all the struggling from before, and saw that none of it had to happen. And I mourned for all the wasted time and gray hairs. I learned SQL, and it made me feel depressed.

stephengillie 14y ago

Cute.

jhuni 14y ago
I don't think the Cute programming language is ready to be used as a first time target for developers yet. Try scheme.
- sonic0002 14y ago
  What is Cute programming language?
  - radicalbyte 14y ago
    It's a Cool variant designed specifically to encourage female students into Software Engineering and/or Computer Science.
    - stephengillie 14y ago
      Serious?

calibwam 14y ago

> To be a god which can do everything--Assembly A god that uses more time than necessary doing some tasks, but when they run, it's so fast.

IsTom 14y ago
As for current architectures, humans are really bad at writing assembly. Advanced compilers like gcc are much better at it.

mackyinc 14y ago

I started at PHP and still learning.

tzs 14y ago

FRACTRAN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN

lectrick 14y ago

> To mingle with programmers who call themselves “rockstars”: Ruby. Oh fuck off. I'm really getting tired of the Ruby backlash. It is a FINE language, better than most.