SaptakBhoumik

Posted on Apr 5, 2022

What is your favorite language and why?

#discuss

Top comments (33)

JavaScript holds a special place in my heart. I first learned the language before jQuery was even a thing (remember jQuery? lol), and it's the language that enabled me to transition from IT to engineering in the 2010s.

These days I write TypeScript, but it's still just JS at the end of the day.

Aaron Reese • Apr 5 '22

SQL
Data is at the heart of many applications and well crafted performant database code is beautiful to read and work with.
Readable code tends to run faster, which is not always the case with other languages where syntax shortcuts obfuscate the intent.

VanPonasenkov • Apr 6 '22

ANSI C. It's just beatiful in so many different ways. 1st, c's syntax is very simple, nothing more, nothing less. 2nd, since it's so simple you debug the code, and not your programming language knowledge. 3rd, the Assembly output is very predictable. It might not seem that important when writing something like a web server, but when writing something like a window manager or an audio codec library it becomes important

matthew-salerno • Apr 6 '22

Not my favorite but it's up there. I used to like C++ until I started to learn more about it and begin to hate the un-ergonomic implementation of a lot of things. I have a soft spot for languages which let me control and easily know what's on the stack/heap. Bit twiddling and especially managing locallity in other languages is a chore in comparison.

SaptakBhoumik • Apr 6 '22

I have been working on a VM and it's core is written in C:)

Alex Johnstone • Apr 7 '22

Python 🐍. It’s useful for pretty much any situation - maybe not the most optimised for every situation but good enough. It’s saved me so much time at work and given me fun with hobbies at home.

It’s easy to get started, clean to read and you can take it all the way to building huge apps like YouTube and Instagram!

It’s a huge part of the scientific world: machine learning controlling nuclear fusion, processing the data from the incredible James Webb Space Telescope, creating pictures of black holes and so much more.

SaptakBhoumik • Apr 7 '22 • Edited

Hey same
Btw check out github.com/peregrine-lang/Peregrine . It is a c++ alternative but with a python like syntax and runs as fast as c++

Alex Johnstone • Apr 7 '22

Cool! There’s probably several optimisations out there, and alternatives to cpython.

Alain D'Ettorre • Apr 6 '22 • Edited

If I had to stick with one programming language, it's JavaScript. I know, it has two really big pitfalls (no types and no standard library), but it's always so convenient to write and read and gives you many features (but not too many features).

However, I also enjoy Go: less features, less stressful, fast, great developer expericence overall, I recommend it.

pheroMona13 • Apr 9 '22

I love how the entire ecosystem around JavaScript is evolving non-stop for years and you can find a completely new thing that you can do (which you could not event imagine doing before) with the language every couple of months.

JessicaMoss • Apr 9 '22

Java script , because it easily gets executed on client environment and save lot of bandwidth and make execution process fast. Dua For Love Marriage in Powerful Quran

Jeremy Friesen • Apr 6 '22

I have an old adage "Come for the Rails, stay for the Ruby!" Ruby's the odd mash-up of Smalltalk and Lisp with a lovely dose of Perl. It bends how I need it to bend; understanding module_exec and instance_exec along with detaching and rebinding functions creates some preposterously weird opportunities.

Recently, I've been wrote some Cypress tests. And it was evident how much they cribbed from RSpec, but you simply can't quite write things like RSpec without Ruby. (I suppose you probably could but invariably, I see lots of echos of RSpec without the expressive nature of it.)

My second up and coming love is Lisp. But I blame my infatuation with Emacs.

bbrtj • Apr 7 '22

Perl because it's capable, flexible and fun. It acknowledges my skill as a programmer and doesn't hold my hand.
We have great tooling for the community modules: automated test machines that run different OSes / architectures / interpreter versions, independent archive of every module ever released (and deleted), and a community which values documentation and testing.

Bobby Plunkett • Apr 6 '22

If I had to choose just my personal favorite in terms of enjoyment of using the language, I would most likely say C#.

Though my favorite language changes depending on the task at hand. Since I primarily work on web-related projects, Typescript is my go-to language in most cases. But alternatively, if I'm working on data processing, I would instantly move to Python.

So I guess my favorite language depends on the project it's being used for.

matthew-salerno • Apr 6 '22

I really like python for how well it handles multi paradigm programming, duck typing, and introspection. That being said it's not perfect, and i have a lot of complaints as well. Imports and virtual envs are a mess, standard multi threading is very limited, performance can be lacking (though not as bad as most think) and I generally prefer compiled langs without GC. A lot of these complaints can be fixed with third party libraries, but I try to avoid gratuitous use of libraries.
You also can't go wrong with C. Well actually you can go wrong, very wrong. It's a massive footgun and I love it. It's also probably the most portable language ever (when used with portability in mind). JVM is cool and all but it seems the first thing anyone does when they make a new instruction set is build a C compiler for it. Not to mention that C has excellent bootstrapping potential for opening the door to other langs.
I have a feeling Rust might steal my heart. But I need to learn more about it before I can call it my favorite.