Which language should I learn?

[Akavit]

Is there one that helps you understand Internet Basement Jockeys?  That would be helpful.   

Cheetos and Mountain Dew should work.

[Hiero of Syracuse]

I like and use  C++. So perhaps you can give that a shot. Though, you should probably do a little research on what you are trying to do with that knowledge. And I also recommend all the other languages people suggested such as HTML, CSS, and SQL.

And although this may not be popular, I advise you learn Assembly Language. There are many different kinds, but it is a useful language to know.

[Cantarella]

Learn AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), which combines the scripting power of JavaScript with XML (Extensible Markup Language). to provide data for modifying an HTML web page. It runs on Javascript but it uses XML. AJAX is not a programming language per se, but more a powerful set of web development techniques. If you are already familiar with HTML, then XML is super easy to learn. The possibilities are endless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming)

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/31155/Ajax-Tutorial-for-Beginners-Part

[JackoPaul]

I'm a programmer and C is the mother of all languages. It's been around forever and I think it is still the best. If you can program in C you can program in anything. It's a medium level language the only one really. It sits between assembly language (machine code) and all the other high level languages mentioned above. It is compiled into fast assembly language very easily. It is used for all serious programming tasks like Operating Systems, Drivers and Games. Many other languages are derived/based on C. eg C++, Java, Perl, PHP, C# .... Also many of these languages are converted into C before being compiled. eg C++ is just C with Classes and is converted to C before being compiled into assembly.

So my advice is learn C and go from there. It is actually a small and easy language to learn.  You can download free compilers from
https://gcc.gnu.org/
or use Microsoft Visual Studio which is now free but the interface and functionality may be a bit bewildering for a novice

HTML and many other website development languages are not actually considered programming languages. Most proper programmers look down on web page developers, but not me. I have also done website development and find it is a totally different skill set.

[LausTibiChriste]

Thanks for that JP

[Mac_Benny]

I haven't started this, yet. But a tennis buddy of mine recommended it if you are looking for a formal class.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

[Mac_Benny]

At work, what I'm currently being told to get into is DevOps. This includes studying DevOps in general and Ruby programming language. Afterwards to learning Puppet (written in Ruby) to setup automated deployment systems. There is a new drive to further squeeze the number of people involved in the environment management, software development, testing (QA), configuration management process. This also center around using JIRA and JIRA add-ons to manage the process.

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/
https://github.com/sagarmred/rails-learning
https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

[LausTibiChriste]

Thanks a lot man!
Do you have a good "beginners" resource? It seems like there's more specialties/languages out there than I will ever understand.
I signed up for that Harvard course too.


Much appreciated.

[Mac_Benny]

Thanks a lot man!
Do you have a good "beginners" resource? It seems like there's more specialties/languages out there than I will ever understand.
I signed up for that Harvard course too.


Much appreciated.

That course should give you a good formal foundation what CS is. That should help you find some focus.

I will PM you what I find.

[Traditionallyruralmom]

I'm learning french    but i don't suppose thats the kind of language your talking about

[Heinrich]

I'm learning french    but i don't suppose thats the kind of language your talking about

French would  sound cacophonous from his boozed-stained vocal chords. Dont give him ideas.

[james03]

Web design: HTML and Javascript

Apps: I believe Android apps are written in Java.

I'd start with Java, and what you learn there will help a lot with Javascript, which has a lot of the same syntax.

If you want the back end server stuff that your web page will interact with, then again a lot of that is Java, but also C.

My favorite language is C.  But that is used for systems stuff and server back end applications.

So: Java -> HTML -> Javascript  You'll also need CSS which allows you to format a webpage.  And if you have time, learn C.

[james03]

Browse around this site and find out what's selling:

https://www.upwork.com/

[Quenyen]

It depends what you want to do with it:


If you want to make contribution to O.S. projects probably C.

If you want to be able to code up quick things for personal use that do not take much time....python rocks.

If you want to be crossplatform, hard to beat java.

[Daniel]

If you want to be able to code up quick things for personal use that do not take much time....python rocks.

I've been thinking about learning some Python for quite some time.
But I will add, JavaScript is also great for this sort of thing. Probably the easiest language to learn and use, and all you need is a text editor and web browser (no IDE, no compiler, no setup).

edit - I also must point out, Java and JavaScript are two entirely different languages. The reason I bring this up is because a lot of people, including a lot of computer people (which is sort of surprising) seem to think that they are the same language, or at least closely related to one another when in fact they are not.
(Both could be useful to web development, though from my experience I'd say that JavaScript is far more useful for that.)

And I see somebody here brought up assembly language. I would have to advise against that, assuming the original poster is not too experienced with programming and just wants to focus on web development. Because assembly language is awesome and great to know, but it's also very intimidating and confusing and not exactly relevant to the web.