What language to Learn?

[mevets]

I'm a high school senior, also wondering what language I should learn.

I know AHK, which is a little known macro writing language for windows, VB.NET from school, and HTML/CSS/etc.

I'm interested in a cross-platform language since I want to move to Linux (the only thing holding me back from going into it deeper is that my wireless card wont work w/ Ubuntu). I hate the syntax of web languages, but they'd probably be good for me to learn since I'm interested in cross-platform.

Suggestions?

[WingedPanther]

C, Java, C++, PHP, Perl are all cross-platform.

[TcM]

Yeah I think you mentioned them all.. I cant think of any more.. ow btw Welcome to the forum!

[Void]

C# is easy to learn - give that a try.

[John]

C# is easy to learn - give that a try.

Im just wondering what you all reccomend. Would you reccomend learning a language because it is easy to learn, although it isnt that popular and powerfull, or would you reccomend learning a language that is more difficult to learn but is very powerfull and very popular?

I go with the latter

[WingedPanther]

I would say that learning a language like Pascal (easy with decent power) first, then moving on to more powerful languages (C, C++, etc) is a good plan. You can learn the language features that are common across languages in a low-threat environment, then move on to more power where you have to implement some of the gimme's by hand.

Moving from a language with native support for graphics to one without that support can be painful, as can going from a RAD (Rapid Application Development) to a non-RAD language.

[mevets]

is c++ cross platform?

[TcM]

Well now even VB can be ran on linux.. limited but can be ran on linux and MAC!
see this thread:-
http://forum.codecall.net/visual-bas...linux-mac.html
but thats not much! its just VB lol

[WingedPanther]

Yes, but you can make it not be. The language itself is cross-platform, but does not include anything for graphics. There are some cross-platform GUI toolkits available, such as wxWidgets and GTK+, which a lot of people like. Anything that is OS/hardware specific, or anything in Visual C++ is generally not cross-platform.

[TcM]

lol we both posted at the same time!! what a coincidence!