What’s the best language and IDE to
develope socket server?
Any language that supports sockets programming (almost anything). The question is a bit simplistic.
I want a language I can learn quickly
that will work on an enterprise level.
You can learn quickly most languages, but to become proficient in them may take time. More than that, the language doesn't matter as much as the library you use.
Here are a few examples of what I mean:
Python takes little time to become proficient with, but I'm not sure how "enterprise level" it is (it's used by NASA, Google and a few other major players so it may be enough).
It is also very high-level, so I wouldn't be surprised if you can write the code for a simple socket server within ten lines of code (it only takes one line of code for creating a web server in python).
Java and C#/C++.cli/VB+ should support the creation of a socket server with relatively few lines of code, as (the same as python) they have already-made libraries supporting most of the functionality.
They are more verbose than Python though so you'll write much more code.
I don't know much about PHP to say how good it would be for this.
C is too low level which means you'll probly write more code than the others mentioned. It's very powerful, but writing the project in C will take you at least a week of writing code and a week (probably many more) in debugging it - especially if you're new with the language.
C++ is ... well across the spectrum (it is both high and low level) but it is difficult to use correctly (it has many quirks and the mistakes you make are not obvious until you understand why it's designed as it is). C++ would probably take more than C to learn and use correctly.
Please set me up with some good
resources:)+
I would but your question is too broad. Here are some questions to narrow it down:
what are your time constraints?
are there any limits?
is any of the languages already used in your enterprise?
how complex should your socket server be?
can you use something already existing?
what is your purpose (do you need socket-server functionality urgently? do you need to learn sockets programming? do you need a socket-server-based solution to a problem you have?)
Edit:
Considering your answers, I'd recommend going with C++ and boost (boost::asio specifically). Here's my reasoning:
I'm likely to go with a
language that I can continue use in
game development.
C++ is the language of choice for game development. It has many pitfalls, but the advantages seem to outweigh that.
If you use good C++ practices you will avoid most of the pitfalls and reasonably manage the ones you can't avoid. ( If you want a list of good practices or common C++ pitfalls ask a new question :) ).
it can't cost anything
Neither C++ nor boost cost anything.
For IDEs, you can download Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 Express (free) for Windows, and use Eclipse+CDT or Code::Blocks for other platforms (I think they're available for Windows also).
If possible, also use a distributed source control system (like Git or Mercurial). They save you a lot of headaches and make managing the code much easier.
Learning and proof of concept is my
purpose.
You will learn a lot :D.
Here are some resources to get you started:
For C++ look at Thinking in C++ (free) and (if you can get your hands on them) Effective C++, More Effective C++ and maybe Effective STL.
For boost, the boost documentation (also free) should be enough, once you get started with C++.
Specifically, have a look at the boost::asio examples. They offer the complete source code for various servers (HTTP servers, echo servers and so on).
boost::asio is an already implemented framework, but learning C++ and the boost libraries on top of it may require a steep learning curve on your side.
