Ever since I switched my field from Engineering to IT Developer, there is ONE SINGLE question I got asked a lot…
Which Programming Language to start?
I would really say IT DEPENDS.
While this might turn out to be one irritating answer — indeed a tricky question. Programming languages are just like normal languages (English/French etc). You could use common languages like JavaScript, Python to do any stuff you want but is it a real good fit? << My advice, as always, are 3 questions that you could consider:
- What do you plan to Achieve (your AIM)?
- What are your Peers / Company using (the CONTEXT)?
- Is it hot in the market?
1. AIM Matters ( What do you plan to achieve using the Programming Language? )
Same to the analogy that you won’t learn German when you targeted to go to France. So for the start, it is the AIM that matters: like you would rather learn JavaScript rather than ObjectiveC for developing websites, and Kotlin rather than C++ in developing mobile apps.
2. The CONTEXT (What Programming Languages your peers are using?)
It is very important to collaborate with others in work, and you would really want to consider the language that your peers and company is using. Sometimes, like web development, several choices like JavaScript, Ruby on Rails and even C# for .NET environment are good fit. However, even when we all know Python is not the best language for web development, you should learn it if it is the tradition of your company to use Python Django. Simple as that right?
3. Is it Hot in the Market (What Programming Languages others are using?)
This is even simpler. Languages are evolving. Some languages will get deprecated through time, and better languages and tools are developing. It is important for us to have a look what is in the market aka what is hot right now. Few are using Visual Basic 6.0 now despite its popularity in the 90s. On the other hand, Python got its hype these 10 years with the development of data science.
In General:
Web Development
JavaScript / PHP / Ruby on Rails / C# for .NET environment , etc.
APP Development
Android App: Kotlin / Java / Go
IOS App: Swift / ObjectiveC
Both Platform: React Native / Flutter
Data Science and Machine Learning
Python / R / TensorFlow, etc
Database
SQL / MySQL / PostgreSQL / MongoDB / Firebase
Cloud Service
AWS / GCP / Oracle / Java
System (Operating / Manufacturing)
C / C++ / Java
There are also loads of Frameworks and Markup languages you should dive in according to your aim, like, CSS, HTML, LESS, SASS, Markdown, XML, YAML etc.
Epilogue
On the whole, the key to learn a programming language is to understand the algorithms and data structure themselves, not the language itself. It doesn’t really matter how and where you start. So the learning curve for every language is more or less the same, while most developers could actually switch languages easily as the logic flows are similar.
Take myself as an example, I started off to be a JavaScript developer, but through days of work, I have been using Java, C#, Python etc. each day. Though my “mother tongue” is JavaScript, it is still easy for me to switch and relate to other languages.
#programming #developer #bootcamp #programminglanguages
This Article is also published on LinkedIn and Medium
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/which-best-programming-language-get-started-ch-felix-fan
https://medium.com/inspired-scientist/which-is-the-best-programming-language-to-get-started-86ed5fb409a7
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