I'm just starting out in the programming world and I know that I have a long road ahead of me..but I learn quickly. :) I want to be able to build RIAs and I've been going through Adobe's PDF files on ActionScript 3.0 and Flex. The more I learn, the more interesting it gets. My questions are these: Am I starting at the right spot? Should ...
I've been using PHP ever since I got a job in web development (late last year). I currently have a desire to learn something new. I was considering Python. Has anyone else been in this state of mind, and what were their choices? Did they end up learning a new language, or did they rethink their PHP approach for a fresh breath of PHPnes...
I have to build a new webapp. My simple question is: How can I choose my programming language according to my needs? Someone can help me building a Programming Language Comparison? ...
we had a discussion about this language at work... Who works with that today? Don't we normally favor readability over smallest number of lines? ...
I'm a non CS graduate and have often heard that CS grads do great programming with languages like C#. I guess they understand the low level details (closer to the metal) so they probably code better. I come from business application background and I may not require the knowledge a CS education gives you but still it won't hurt to learn ...
I write client-server based business applications using .Net and C#. Given this, how would F# enable me to write better code? "Better" in any sense, e.g. faster coding, faster execution, better reliability, more flexibility. In short, why should I use F#? ...
I have a course at university where we are learning WinAPI programming. As I know C++ a bit, I must say that it is rather hard to deal with WinAPI - all these functions, structures, old-style casts, etc. But at the same time, I think that a good book can make every difficult moment easy to learn. My question actually consists of: Wha...
Now when the Gartner analyst said Smalltalk is cool again and it is used more and more for the web applications with frameworks like in Seaside and Aida/Web, me as a Smalltalker I'm wondering how much my language is known among broader programmer community. ...
I read this answer and its comments and I'm curious: Are there any reasons for not using this / Self / Me ? BTW: I'm sorry if this has been asked before, it seems that it is impossible to search for the word this on SO. ...
I am intrigued by stack-based languages like Forth. Are there situations where Forth is the best tool for the job or is it just an intellectual and historical curiosity? What about derivative languages like Factor or Joy? Which of these languages would you recommend learning? And for what purpose (apart from mind expansion)? ...
I know C# and VB and want to learn a new language soon, but I don't want to learn something which is 'just like C# or VB but a bit different'. Ruling out Java for example (I already know a bit anyway). What's a good language to try? Should I go for an interpreted language like python, ruby, or PHP, or will I learn more from a lower-leve...
I was writing some code, and I notice a pattern in the exception handling that got me thinking: try{ // do stuff... throws JMS, Create and NamingException } catch (NamingException e) { log1(e); rollback(); doSomething(e) } catch (CreateException e) { log1(e); rollback(); doSomething(e)...
which languages support tail recursion optimization? ...
I was working with a new c++ developer a while back when he asked the question: "Why can't variable names start with numbers?" I couldn't come up with an answer except that some numbers can have text in them (123456L, 123456U) and that wouldn't be possible if the compilers were thinking everything with some amount of alpha characters wa...
I've heard that trampolining is an ineffective way of implementing TCO. How does DrScheme (PLAI Scheme, technically) do it? Does it do it the 'right' way (that is, produce assembly code which directly branches to the tail call, instead of going through the stack and trampolining)? ...
Why is garbage collection required for tail call optimization? Is it because if you allocate memory in a function which you then want to do a tail call on, there'd be no way to do the tail call and regain that memory? (So the stack would have to be saved so that, after the tail call, the memory could be reclaimed.) ...
What are some fun programming languages to learn and work with? I'm asking this for absolutely no practical purpose other than just to learn something new. So, what are some fun languages? I already know Python and C# so those don't count (although Python would probably be the first language I'd recommend). I've spent some time with ...
In which languages are high-profile games like Half-Life 2, Crysis, Quake 4 and Red Alert 3 and so on written in? This includes game design tools, scripting tools, and so on. ...
There are some gadgets/features for programming languages that I like a lot because they save a lot of coding or simply because they are magical or nice. Some of my favorites are: C++ increment/decrement operator: my_array[++c]; C++ assign and sum or substract (...): a += b C# yield return: yield return 1; C# foreach: foreach (MyClass...
I've been doing C# for quite a while now (2.5 years) professionally after having dabbled in Java and PHP while in college. Now I really want to improve myself as a developer and want to learn a second language. What would be a good choice and most importantly why; What will learning that language add to my skillset (besides the syntax ob...