I'm considering learning a programing language to make small applications. Any recommendations? I would think that it would have to be a language that I could start small and eventually grow with.
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Web: PHP (Which I use lots...), HTML, CSS (If you count them)
Ordinary applications: Python (though I don't really use it), probably with wxWidgets
Installers: NSIS!
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web: what chris said
desktop apps: c++, delphi
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Everything they said and, if you don't want to spend a lot of time, try XUL (Firefox is written in that).
Blue is everything.
I'm seeing a lot of different language options. Is there any one in particular that I would just have to know or do I have to learn more than one. By the way XUL is on my list for a GUI option.
(PS: I meant desktop only)
self.path = path if self.path == None else self.path
How many you learn is up to you. C++ is probably the most difficult, but it can give you more system control. I havent worked with Python at all, and Delphi is slightly confusing at first, but easy to understand once you figure out some programming basics. I think JAVA is actually one of the better introductory languages, but in some ways, JAVA spoils you by making certain things almost too easy lol.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I learnt VB.NET first as it is easy to create a GUI using drag and drop, the debugger is great and the IDE is free. However it isnt really that great from a portable apps perspective. After that I learnt C++ (with wxWidgets) and what Zach said about being spoiled is right, having to manage my own memory was a big change, as well as thing like pointers. I am not starting to learn Erlang, but I doubt that is very relevent to the majority of people here
To sum up, if you can find a language with a good IDE, debugger and easy GUI creation learning it will be much easier. Java I believe fits all of these as do VB.NET and C# (which is also .NET), not too sure about Delphi, do you still have to buy the IDE? Once you have the basics sorted you can try a more difficult language!
With regards to how many, you will find that most languages can do most things, and once you have learnt one, learning another will be fairly stright forward, just make sure you pick a popular language to start with so you can get lots of community help
I recently had to cram .NET for a recent job. I would strongly recommend C# over VB .NET.
C# was designed from the beginning with the .NET Framework in mind. Some have analogized C# to the development of .NET as C to the development of UNIX.
Well in that case I'll look at Ruby, Python, and XUL (As a GUI option because it looks really interesting). Any body dealt with those?
self.path = path if self.path == None else self.path
looked at Ruby, always seemed a bit scripty to me, there werent really any mature GUI systems then either, very popular though these days. Python has the very well supported wxPython set of libraries if you want to do GUI work, lots of info about python avalible on the web, seems like a good option. I have a feeling that you need to to some extra work to turn its programs into Windows binaries so they can be distributed without extra runtimes, might be worth looking into. As for XUL, personally I would avoid it, it seems to me like it is pretty much only used by Mozilla, and the XUL runner seems to be at an experimental stage.
Rather than listening to me though it would be worth just trying them all out and seeing which style you prefer after reading a few tutorials
self.path = path if self.path == None else self.path
What did you end up going with?