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Can anyone provide advice on which language to pick? I started learning C++ and Java in high school and college because those were forced by the curriculum. My

Can anyone provide advice on which language to pick? I started learning C++ and Java in high school and college because those were forced by the curriculum. My first two jobs out of school forced me also to use C# which was close enough to Java. When I wanted to make the leap to script languages, my choice between Python and Ruby basically boiled down to the strength of the local Ruby / Python communities, and Ruby clearly won in that realm. But with functional programming, I want to learn, but I have far less direction. Scala is perhaps the biggest, but still small. Haskell seems to be the most "hardcore", which appeals to me, whereas I keep anecdotally seeing people who like Ruby and Javascript (my two main languages) also tend to gravitate towards Clojure, and I can't explain why. So far I've hated Scala's syntax and formatting (much like I hated Objective-C). Haskell is making my brain melt. Clojure seems quite simple and reminds me of my days writing Scheme in school. Any thoughts?

frowaway001 13y ago
I'm a bit biased, but I'd recommend giving Scala a try. There is a lot of non-sense floating on the internet about the language, but I suggest making up your own mind. Tooling and IDE support is better than Haskell and Clojure, so you can focus on the language instead of fighting with tools. If you know Scala a bit, it's easy to move to something else. For instance, if you decide that you don't need types, you can move to Clojure; if you decide you don't need unchecked side-effects you can move to Haskell; if you decide that you don't need functional programming, you can move to a different OOP language (or keep using Scala).