16 replies to this topic

[Heaven1977]

What's the Best Programming Language ?

According to :
1. Modern Language code " not old fashion huge codes "
2. usability " Powerful " ( capable of making most of things , Application , web , Graphics....etc )
3. have a community working to develop it more and increase it's abilities

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

Heaven1977 said:

1. Modern Language code " not old fashion huge codes "

If you want a modern language with concise syntax, Python will probably offer that, though I've never used it and don't intend to. If you want something that will accomplish a task in as few lines as possible, go for a functional language like Haskell or Common Lisp.

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2. usability " Powerful " ( capable of making most of things , Application , web , Graphics....etc )

Power and usability are inversely proportional. Languages that are easy to learn (Python, Java, C#) usually produce programs that are larger, slower, and more bloated than programs written in C or some Assembly language. There is no one language that is best suited for every task. If there was, then there would only be one language.

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3. have a community working to develop it more and increase it's abilities

I believe PHP has an active community developing it. So does Perl. You mostly see this in languages that are written for the web, which is constantly changing.

[WingedPanther]

Heaven1977 said:

What's the Best Programming Language ?

According to :
1. Modern Language code " not old fashion huge codes "
2. usability " Powerful " ( capable of making most of things , Application , web , Graphics....etc )
3. have a community working to develop it more and increase it's abilities

1. This isn't a clear criteria. Functional programming is both old-fashioned and Modern, for example. With C++, your choice of library can make a huge difference in the number of lines needed to accomplish a task.
2. Again, this isn't really a clear criteria, since most languages are Turing complete, they are equally powerful. Library support, compiling/interpretation options, etc can all influence this.
3. Also vague: Java's community is Oracle. C++'s is ISO. Ruby has a very small community, but rapid development of the core language.

In general, there is no one best language for ALL situations, and those criteria are very abstract.

[liamzebedee]

.NET is my answer to your criteria. Although it is not technically a language (it is a framework) it has many languages supporting it. You can even create your own language with it-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc136756.aspx

. The framework is updated reguraly with bug and security fixes so technically it is like a dynamic language, it keeps getting more powerful. Although its support is only limited to Windows machines its still very good. I think of it as a shiny high level language.

For simplicity I'll review C# on your criteria

1. Modern Language code " not old fashion huge codes "

Half Fulfils this. If your working with forms, it automatically produces alot of code. Its not like a language you can type in notepad and compile via the command line if your creating a GUI application. Thats what the Visual Studio IDE is for.

2. usability " Powerful " ( capable of making most of things , Application , web , Graphics....etc )

Does this. Helps with Silverlight and can run on IIS servers via ASPX.

3. have a community working to develop it more and increase it's abilities

Thats .NET. Check out the MSDN Magazine. Amazing tutorials available.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/default.aspx

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

liamzebedee said:

.NET is my answer to your criteria. Although it is not technically a language (it is a framework) it has many languages supporting it.

Qt, GTK+, Mono, and many other frameworks support many languages.

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You can even create your own language with it-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc136756.aspx

. The framework is updated reguraly with bug and security fixes so technically it is like a dynamic language, it keeps getting more powerful.

This is true of just about any framework in existence. And the fact that something is in constant need of bug and security fixes does not make it "dynamic".

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Although its support is only limited to Windows machines its still very good. I think of it as a shiny high level language.

.NET is not even close to a language, and it will not teach you how to program, any more than heating up a Hungry Man meal teaches you how to cook.

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For simplicity I'll review C# on your criteria

1. Modern Language code " not old fashion huge codes "

Half Fulfils this. If your working with forms, it automatically produces alot of code. Its not like a language you can type in notepad and compile via the command line if your creating a GUI application. Thats what the Visual Studio IDE is for.

Or you can use C# with MonoDevelop, which is exactly the same as .NET only it's free, open-source, and cross-platform. As for the other "half", languages like Python and Ruby are modern and easy to learn AND they don't generate lots of superfluous code.

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2. usability " Powerful " ( capable of making most of things , Application , web , Graphics....etc )

Does this. Helps with Silverlight and can run on IIS servers via ASPX.

As WingedPanther said, all Turing-complete languages are equally powerful. Also, hardly anyone uses Silverlight over Flash. And most servers run on Apache or nginx, not IIS. Both of the things yo mentioned are in the minority.

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3. have a community working to develop it more and increase it's abilities

Thats .NET. Check out the MSDN Magazine. Amazing tutorials available.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/default.aspx

This is true of Perl, Python, Java, C++, and just about every other modern language. But since this is strictly controlled by Microsoft, you have no real control over it.


Your arguments in favor of closed-source platforms are both flawed and deceptive.

Edited by DarkLordofthePenguins, 03 April 2011 - 08:56 AM.

[tormaroe]

Most has been said in this thread already, and could possibly be summed up in something like "different languages have different trade-offs".

When it comes to power though, I would define that as "the ability to express complex ideas with less code". I realize this is only one side of what power might mean, but it's the most interesting side. And using this definition I would say that the languages that makes it easy to do functional programming are the most powerful. And of all of them, I believe the Lisps to be at the top.

The power of Lisps are dangerous though, they require discipline and programmer experience. A Lisp will not help you do stuff right.

Language like C# or Java on the other hand can be said to enable a large team of developers to create something together without that same demand in experience. As you see this is also a power.

[liamzebedee]

Everyone has their own opinion I guess. @DarkLordofthePenguins I don't really like .NET and I agree with you, its a Microsoft thing, you either obey the dark lord, or you join the alliance.

The best programming language is really what is best suited to the job. You wouldn't make a video game in assembly just like you wouldn't design an operating system in HTML.

[gregwarner]

This isn't a very helpful post, but hands down, the best language is your favorite language. :)

[tormaroe]

gregwarner said:

This isn't a very helpful post, but hands down, the best language is your favorite language. :)

I would like to familiarize you guys with an article called Beating the Average by a chap called Paul Graham. I've snipped some of it, talking about why everybody believes they use the best language - and why they aren't:

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After a certain age, programmers rarely switch languages voluntarily. Whatever language people happen to be used to, they tend to consider just good enough.

As long as our hypothetical Blub programmer is looking down the power continuum, he knows he’s looking down. Languages less powerful than Blub are obviously less powerful, because they’re missing some feature he’s used to. But when our hypothetical Blub programmer looks in the other direction, up the power continuum, he doesn’t realize he’s looking up. What he sees are merely weird languages. He probably considers them about equivalent in power to Blub, but with all this other hairy stuff thrown in as well. Blub is good enough for him, because he thinks in Blub.

Computer hardware changes so much faster than personal habits that programming practice is usually ten to twenty years behind the processor. At places like MIT they were writing programs in high-level languages in the early 1960s, but many companies continued to write code in machine language well into the 1980s.

Ordinarily technology changes fast. But programming languages are different: programming languages are not just technology, but what programmers think in. They’re half technology and half religion. And so the median language, meaning whatever language the median programmer uses, moves as slow as an iceberg. Garbage collection, introduced by Lisp in about 1960, is now widely considered to be a good thing. Runtime typing, ditto, is growing in popularity. Lexical closures, introduced by Lisp in the early 1970s, are now, just barely, on the radar screen. Macros, introduced by Lisp in the mid 1960s, are still terra incognita.

You should really read the whole thing..!

[WingedPanther]

I read it a while ago. It's part of why I want to constantly expose myself to new types of languages. Common Lisp, Haskell, Clojure, etc. Even doing something as simple as getting familiar with Lisp, along with learning about Boost::Lambda, can change the way you program in an "old" language.

[gregwarner]

I do often jump from language to language, simply depending on what the current project requires.

[Smilex]

before you start on your idea/project, do some documenting and with it some research, figure out which language is best for the task (take as much as you can into consideration, just don't be stubborn) and only then will you have the best language.