Does anyone else have almost no interest in other languages?

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Its definitely off putting. At uni we were forced to take C++, biggest horror when its the first language you try and pick up. Few years later I picked up VB again as its quite forgiving, I still use it for VBA. Python to me seems the least punishing from the recent past. I found SQL manageable but again if your not doing it regularly you soon forget or get really rusty.

I suppose if your day job is a developer you never forget much and far easier to migrate between languages once you get a healthy core base under your belt.
Ouch. When I first learned to code I tried learning a C language and man was that rough. Gave up and came back a few years later when I found python and never looked back!
 
Soldato
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Ouch. When I first learned to code I tried learning a C language and man was that rough. Gave up and came back a few years later when I found python and never looked back!

Exactly, I didnt realise but later on people said to me "why did you choose C?" and I was like well it wasn't a choice thing lol. I really struggled through it but naturally found the technician modules a breeze but it did put me off developing. Some time later I started to get back into batch files and VBA and realised it was ok. Python was ace and I reckon if I had started off on that would probably been developing a long time ago.
 
Soldato
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C++ programmer here.

Tbh I don't feel any great attachment to a particular language. They all have their use cases foibles. Can't beat C/C++ when you care about performance though. Once you can use C/C++, you can pick up any other language with ease anyway....it's when you go from higher level stuff like python the other way people struggle.

Modern C++ is actually quite nice to work with, but for some bizarre reason most universities etc. like to put people off the language by teaching plain C++98.
 
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Anyone suggesting C or C++ as a first language to learn needs a swift kick in the nuts!

I don't agree here at all. They are different flavours for different things. Python is like learning facts, but C++ is like understanding 'why'. Anyone can learn if you throw a ball up it'll come down and that's all that's needed for nearly everyone, but if you really learn 'why' it does it, you can use that to your advantage in other aspects and really take control of it to a small detail.

Python fits nearly anyone and is great to get people at a base layer but going from Pyhton to C++ is rediculously daunting to most people that code because of how different and complex it is in comparison. However anyone that can do c++ can do python afterwards and if you are taught a complex thing first, you don't learn 'bad habit short cuts' from the easier mode. It's harder to unlearn that and re-lean complexity, than it is to learn complex things first and then learn short cuts afterwards.

Again, I think python is great for the majority of uses for the majority of people, but a lot of people learn it because they are taught it at school and give up on it like they do with history and geography because whilst they can use it, it doesn't interest them at all. But learning c++ first would mean you either learn a language properly, or give up coding because you know it's not for you, it's more obvious from an earlier level and if you do end up 'getting it', then you know you are now set for any aspects of coding (maybe not assembly :p)

Lastly in my opinion, C++ was also taught by 'coder' type people who don't have great personalities or charisma, they made learning un-fun and more complicated than needed. Now that coding is way more universal, giving a rise to much more interesting/charismatic teachers for the next generations.
 
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but for some bizarre reason most universities etc. like to put people off the language by teaching plain C++98.

Yes this was back in 2001 for me, text book tuition and Borland. Recall the lecturer had left as we started the semester and the next person in was a student not long completed her degree. Horrible.

I did have a great lecturer for VB and he had a great sense of humour. Think he was borderline mad but enjoyed his stuff 10x more.
 
Caporegime
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This is EXACTLY where I'm at now. Eveything is a python problem to me, it's just so much easier.

How do you go about learning a new language? What makes you pick one to try and what are you first steps?

Try something like this, get exposed to several languages and some key points about them, then you'll have some idea about the different types of languages out there:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X/
You should learn a programming language every year, as recommended by The Pragmatic Programmer. But if one per year is good, how about Seven Languages in Seven Weeks? In this book you'll get a hands-on tour of Clojure, Haskell, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, and Ruby. Whether or not your favorite language is on that list, you'll broaden your perspective of programming by examining these languages side-by-side. You'll learn something new from each, and best of all, you'll learn how to learn a language quickly.

I'm not sure you really do need learn a new language every year but it's probably worth having a look at some more and getting some basic familiarity.
 
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When I learned to code I learned python. I then learned a couple other things, SQL mainly, and very basic HTML, CSS, JS, the usual suspects. I can read other code fine, obviously, and I understand what I feel like are a lot of the core concepts of programmin.

My issue is I never want to learn a new language. I read things alllll the time about general programming concepts and python specific things, but just never want to say go and learn C.

Does anyone else feel like this? I love programming, but only specifically some bits.

As someone who learnt many languages prior to learning Python, I think this is a Python thing lol. It's a lot quicker to get things done with Python and it makes you a little lazy.
 
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To echo the comments of others, knowing the libraries of a language just makes you SOOOO much more productive in it. I've just started to learn Python this last week and while it's dead easy to knock some code together, I am finding the absence of declaring variable types and things like that pretty strange. Makes me want a compiled language so I can find my typos, bugs and accidental type-casting up front rather than waiting to trip over them at run time. Also continually finding myself refactoring my code as I've just "dumped things in place X" when I started writing them and then having to sort it out to be better organised.

Ref the OP - sure, there's a learning curve to picking up a new language and depending on whether you're trained or understand either functional programming or object oriented programming, this can be pretty difficult; then pile on the different libraries to learn on top and it can be a right pain. While there are specialist use cases, if you have a good grasp of one language it'll probably be the best hammer for you for a whole range of tasks / problems. You just need to find that project that it sucks to do in Python and that'll give you the motivation to find and learn the next language that makes that problem easy.
 
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