Why did you chose Programing Language XYZ?

I learned Java while in college, though only the beginner's courses. Next was JavaScript for web, and also VB and ASP.NET with C#. Lastly, I learned PHP during a senior project because my teammates used it.

Regarding .NET, I do tend to shy away from MS technologies when I can get away with it, but these 2 classes were easy-A; I barely learned anything in them. Nothing against them in particular though. I've heard some good things about ASP.NET with C#.

Anyway, I ended up sticking with JS and PHP. With JS, I eventually ended up learning MeteorJS, and recently I started learning Laravel and Vue for my newest project -- all fun stuff.

Edit: I'll add BASH to this list. I use this at work occasionally for a few things, and it definitely does come in handy.

I chose and still am in love with C#. Mostly, because I had an awesome lecturer on C#. Also, it was the first language I have built my first serious application with some infrastructure. And of course, LINQ ❤

Why would you learn a language if it doesn't have a purpose at all?
We all know language dies if they aren't one of the following

1. Target platform - Web? Desktop? Mobile? IoT? OS?
2. Community - Is it active? another short-lived project?
3. Salary - Jeez, even hobbyist are using the x language without paying them..

It's not easy to transition from one language to another, unless someone is a polyglot.

So.. I could share mine. Because some are required, others are for side-projects.
My First programming language was C++ because it was required in my freshmen college, then I transition to JAVA because of Data Structure, then it went deeper to Assembly because I went to hell mode. Then unto to Web Development where jobs are swooping in my country and is now an in-demand job.

I am still enthusiastic of learning different language that fits for the job.

I've learned many C-style langs, also some lisp style and some esoteric ones. I've only seen a few I don't like, for example haskell, brain-f***.

For professional projects I now try to work within C, C++, Java, Golang, Python or PHP with a handful of DSL's and declaratives. I do like C# (so similar to Java on surface), but don't have time for it in my life, and will probably drop it like I did PERL, various BASIC dialects and the Pascal's.

I Use languages generally because clients are using them, or there is a significant body of work.

Language I'm interested in but cannot get enough time for is Rust. I'm not good enough with rust nor do I have heaps of systems-programming experience so work isn't an option. I've also been updating my C++ so it's not just C with classes and I can use newer language features. It's a journey, but also not something I feel competent in as a full-time programmer.

Whatever people pick, I hope they know that as long as they don't hate the language or it's concepts, they've made a good enough choice for right now.

The only 3 languages I "chose" were C, because it was my first language; Python, because I was working a lot in Linux, and Clojure (admittedly any functional language I've even looked at was a "choice"), because I knew I'd never do functional programming at any job. Every other language was something I had to learn.

None were particularly hard for me, possibly because I started with C, and I had seen Lisp before in college, so Clojure wasn't a big adjustment.

During a normal week, it is very common for me to code in at least 4 different languages, depending on the project.
However, my favorite language is Ruby. I learned it only for using Rails, but it ended up to be my "main" language.
I can transform my toughts into code faster with Ruby.

Many language choices were thrust upon me.

• GW Basic, Pascal in high school
• C, C++, Assembly in college
• Javascript required for web
• VB for side work

Others I chose based on information I found about them.

• DOS Batch scripting, goofing around with a friend
• Perl for linux scripting
• PHP because it was easy to make web apps (early 2000s)
• Java as a brief experiment (early 2000s)
• C# because I grew tired of VB verbosity
• Bash for linux scripting
• Python for linux service dev (mid or late 2000s)
• F# for the promise of better quality
• Typescript to add extras to Javascript
• Elm for the promise of better quality

Most transitions were not difficult, because many of these languages use a C-like syntax and familiar debug/compile cadences. And hardly anything is worse than where I started: DOS batch scripting. :)

All of them require learning a new set of "libraries". But some transitions were notably difficult.

• Javascript, mainly because of all its weird edge cases -- especially around type coercion and browser support. The language was very brittle and limited in these early days.
• Java, because of lots of unfamiliar tooling and non-obvious requirements (e.g. package name matching path). I recall using Forte for Java.
• F#, because expression-based syntax was different from everything else I had used. Immutability is a confusing concept at first. And idiomatic FP code was very different from what I had done up to that point. It took at least 2 tries before I latched on to it.
• Elm, mostly because all front-end tooling is a hot mess. But also getting used to the Model-View-Update pattern.

Well, I didn't choose JavaScript, JavaScript choose me! I only wanted to build websites ;).

Bah. A pragramming language chooses you!

I learnt:

1. Visual basic: Got bored when I was a kid and this at the time was recommended to learn. I've never liked it.

2. Python: I wanted something more than Visual basic, my brother had been writing Python since 2009 and suggested it to me.

3. Java & C#: I originally went into games development and found out that these two were the most popular for game development.

4. C & C++: Its currently on my university course but back then I wanted to learn something that is involved in almost everything, you'll find them in operating systems, languages, networks etc

5. Rust: I love the feel of Rust and the C/C++ aspects of it, the cargo package I have found to be very good also.

At university we're being taught web dev (HTML, CSS, JS, TypeScript) in the next year. While I know the first three to a good extent TypeScript is next on my list.

Each language has pros and cons!

• I <3 JavaScript for full stack web work, often with universal rendering
• Python and R I like for tasks I pair with Scientists on, data science work, etc. They seem to know the languages, and the ecosystems are fantastic for scientific calculation.
• I choose C++ when it comes to cross-platform high-performance work, and drag Qt in to play if I need a GUI
• I choose C when I'm feeling feisty and want low level work with utmost control and no framework "magic". I.e., protocol level work
• I choose Elixir when I need extreme levels of concurrency

That sort of thing! It's fun to learn new languages imo, and I enjoy finding how I can best leverage them for different problems

I love Rust because it enables me to really express my thoughts. For example, real immutability enables simple designs by allowing you to provide read-only access to fields. Enumerations ("Tagged Unions") are a great alternative to Inheritance. Option types instead of 'everything could be null' really help avoiding mistakes at compile time. Plus, Rust has performance similar to C++. Before learning Rust, I didn't know how important an ergonomic dependency management system is. <3

I'm learning Ruby for the exclusive reason that Flatiron School teaches Ruby. (Later I'll also learn JavaScript for the front end)! Prior to this, I was learning C++ because my college taught C++. So in many ways, my choices were made simply by what resources were available to me.

If I were to choose any language and be able to have great resources for it, that language would be Python. However, I've fallen in love with learning Ruby, and I can't wait to start making applications in Rails!

My languages kind of chose me in the beginning. My first job my coworker had used some php to accomplish some tasks so I picked it up to continue automating some things. This eventually led us to build a marketing feed ingestion website which we wrote with Symfony/PHP/Python and gearman for async scaling. The web requires javascript so that came along for the ride.

Eventually I moved jobs and out of the silicon valley area (I mean who can afford that rent!?) and eventually discovered typescript. This was a glorious new way to write javascript. Very recently I had a chance to do something for a one of project and decided to use Go, which is very easy to learn. Then very recently I decided to take a modern C++ udemy class, though I have not yet done anything with C++.

Overall I would say transitioning languages is not that hard. They mostly share the same characteristics and you just need to figure out the exact syntax. I suspect the biggest thing that will make using C++ difficult is the fact that there is just so much syntax to remember.

• I chose Visual Basic (my first one) because I wanted an easy start into GUI programming.
• I chose Pascal because it was mandatory back in school.
• I chose Object Pascal because Delphi/RAD Studio has been the most awesome RAD IDE well into 2018 and counting.
• I chose C++ because <filesystem> is amazing (yes, it's that simple).
• I chose C because sometimes I want to have as little overhead as possible.
• I chose Common Lisp because it has an awesome ecosystem (QuickLisp) and it allows be to build incredibly quick prototypes.
• I chose Racket because it is basically "Lisp with a kitchen sink", having both a GUI and a web framework as a part of the language itself.
• I chose Python because I didn't know better.
• I chose C# because I wanted to play with Windows Forms (still ongoing project, maybe I'll tell you later).
• I chose FASM because I want to know my limits. (Looks like FASM is my limit.)
• I chose COBOL because I was curious.

I never transitioned. Why would I?