macOS hobbyist programmer: which language?

[grapes911]

What's the logic here-- to make sure he learns basic data structures before relying on the libraries?

That's my philosophy. I love the STL, but I find many that programmers that start with the STL or API classes such as the ones for Java or C#, never really understand how or why things work. Programmers that start learning data structures first, tend to have a better grasp on writing more efficient code because they know what's going behind the scenes.

 

[x704]

heh, I love threads where a guy asks what he should learn; lots of this is better than that because...

It does not matter. Any of them will teach you the necessary skills to become a proficient programmer for the future. After you figure one or two out, the rest will be really easy to pick up, most languages are based on the same principles anyway (not counting languages like LISP and erlang).

Pick one, stick with it until you understand whats going on (at least). Most of all enjoy learning what you chose.

Any particular area you want to get into? If its website server side stuff then consider perl, python, ruby, php, and java. Misc programs to make peoples lives easier? Just about any would do, Ruby and python have some good GUI libraries for any of the platforms (linux, OSX, BSD, windows...), Java is fairly well supported, everything supports C, the list goes on. For fun I am considering learning Virgil, an OOP language geared for microcontrollers (http://compilers.cs.ucla.edu/virgil/overview.html).

Have fun

 

[Sander]

If you are a hobbyist I'd avoid .NET, frankly its a totally flawed API. Here is a list of flaws for starters.

I haven't made up my mind about Objective-C yet, but C# is definitely not my favorite programming language...

 

[grapes911]

I haven't made up my mind about Objective-C yet, but C# is definitely not my favorite programming language...

Some of the complaints in that article are what make me like C#. To each their own, I guess.

 

[yeroen]

I haven't made up my mind about Objective-C yet, but C# is definitely not my favorite programming language...

That was a very enlightening article. I knew about C#'s bureaucratic demotion of functions as first class constructs, and I assumed other things, contorted, occult or distasteful, that typically dog managed environments, but now I can quote specifics.