Ask Slashdot: What Language Should a Former Coder Dig Into? 530
An anonymous reader writes "I was a consultant for nearly 20 years and I got into projects where I had to work with a huge variety of software, operating systems, hardware, programming languages, and other assorted technologies. After retiring from that I have spent the last 10 years in a completely different sector. Now I find myself wanting to really focus on coding for personal reasons. You can imagine how out-of-touch I am since I never really was more than a hack to begin with. I can learn syntax and basics in a weekend, question is, what Language should I become native to? Never liked anything 'lower-level' than C, and I don't have the funds to 'buy' my development environment....help me Slashdot, you're my only hope."
re (Score:5, Funny)
"...help me Slashdot, you're my only hope."
You're screwed.
PHP (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why do people ask questions like these? (Score:5, Funny)
in a completely different sector
OP said he [she?] has been in a completely different sector [wikipedia.org]. Who knows what the technology is like there?
Re:Beware of dynamic languages for large projects. (Score:5, Funny)
Right on! You are totally correct about all languages being equal. That's why all our largest projects are done in COBOL. Since that's the only language we're comfortable with, it just makes sense to use it for everything from throwaway scripts to enterprise software and shrink-wrapped products.
Re:Beware of dynamic languages for large projects. (Score:5, Funny)
You must be one of the Ruby nuts that the GP warned about. I've had to interview a bunch of them recently. Apparently they can't find any work using Ruby, so they've been applying for the C++ jobs that I have open at the moment. I seriously can't believe how some of them behave. One of the first guys I interviewed wouldn't take off his fedora, wouldn't shake hands with anyone, and openly admitted that he wouldn't work with any of our female developers and testers for some reason. Another guy refused to use C++, while interviewing for a C++ programmer position! During his interview, we asked him to write some small sample programs in C++, but he turned in some Ruby code, and told us it was "more efficient" or some bullshit like that. The rest usually don't even get that far. Some of them don't even know what the STL or Boost are! I could easily see these guys considering a 4,000-5,000 line web app as being a "huge project".
Re:Beware of dynamic languages for large projects. (Score:5, Funny)
There are no Java projects that weren't huge. Even the trivial ones.