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If You Switched Languages, Which Would You Choose?

If you were to dive into a programming language you've never used before, which one would you choose? Share your pick and the reasons behind it. Discuss the challenges you anticipate facing during this leap and the resources you'd lean on for guidance. Seasoned developers, offer your insights on navigating such transitions. Let's explore the world of code from a fresh perspective!

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Top comments (25)

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jameszenartist profile image
James Hansen

Definitely C++!! For the past 6 years while learning/building with Javascript & Python, I believe I've deprived myself of the fundamentals. I probably would've spent a lot less time banging my head against the wall, and had a smoother learning experience when taking on new languages as I would already have had a deeper understanding of what was going on behind the scenes.

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Harry Wood

This reminds me of the "admired & desired" results in the stackoverflow developer survey, although I'm not quite sure how to interpret that. A lot of people desire to work with "zig"? really? I've only just heard of it.

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mitchiemt11 profile image
Mitchell Mutandah • Edited

I'd go for Go.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Maybe Zig?

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

Puns! No! NO PUNS NOOOOOOOOOOOO :)

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

My favorite languages are: D, Python, F#, and Lua.

For my day job, I currently program primarily in: C++ (C++17).

As long as we're dreaming, if I were king and switched from C++ to some other language for my day job, it'd likely be one of: Rust, Zig, Odin, Hylo (formerly Val), or Swift.

I'd also take a close look for consideration at Nim, Carbon, Jai (cough if Jon Blow ever finishes perfecting it cough), and Vale.

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

I’ve wanted to try Ruby/Ruby On Rails for a while, is that wrong?

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janmpeterka profile image
Jan Peterka

I recently went basically all in Ruby on Rails (for my web app projects), and so far, I love it. I think that it's great time to start with Rails, as there are many great improvements happening, making Rails really powerfull way to create web apps!

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

Nice, that makes sense. I am definitely going to start using it!

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eshimischi profile image
eshimischi

Rust

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andi1984 profile image
Andreas Sander

For webdev topics I would try Go as a backend server as I heard now several times that it is really comfortable for building simple backends fast and easy to understand.

To appreciate compilers, I would like to invest time into Rust as the compiler seems to be really, really good with precise error messages. But I assume the learning curve is way steeper and the time invest is probably huge to get a grasp on the Rust ecosystem and syntax.

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syxaxis profile image
George Johnson

Highly recommended, been doing a lot of work lately with Gin in Golang using standard Bootstrap with HTMX in the pages ( I'm backender I'm afraid! ), the Gin framwork makes it super fast to stand up a server and get the data flowing out into the pages is childsplay as it does all the heavy lifting with minimal effort.

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manchicken profile image
Mike Stemle

I already work in a variety of languages. I got in the habit years ago when I was in a job where I had to use ColdFusion, a language I didn’t care for.

We all have a number of tasks we do, and some of those can be automated, or at least we can build tools for ourselves. What a wonderful opportunity to learn a new language!

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Oscar

Probably C/C++! I've dabbled with C, and I really enjoy it. The only reason that I don't use it all the time is that it's just not applicable to what I'm looking to do for a career. Although, I might start poking around with C++ for CP.

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J.R. Hill

I'm a fan of not having "a language." IMO this is for beginners who are learning to program, or for people who program casually.

Learn a ton of things -- languages, ecosystems, toolchains, etc but more importantly the underlying systems like the OS, browser, or device APIs -- and use the best tool for the job that you think you can figure out how to use.