Programming

27195 readers

430 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Follow the programming.dev instance rules
Keep content related to programming in some way
If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

snowe@programming.dev

Ategon@programming.dev

UlrikHD@programming.dev

bugsmith@programming.dev

Spyro@programming.dev

100

Is there any use in learning an "easy" programming language? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago by pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have been thinking of learning some programming recently, but I don't feel confident enough. Is there any point in beginning with something like Zig or Go, and switching to something more serious later?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Zig and Go are serious. I think Python would be a language that isn't serious (despite it's widespread use in serious applications) but has a reputation for being easy. I don't know if that reputation is really deserved.

Anyway I would start with one of Python, Go or Typescript (via Deno). I would avoid Rust, Haskell, OCaml, C++ as your very first language, but they could be your second.

Whatever you do don't learn Python and stop there. That's the way to be a crap programmer. And if you do use Python learn to use type hints early on.

[–] Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel like Python is sometimes too powerful in terms of what you can achieve with few lines of code. It tends to have lines that do a lot of things at once and therefore become very hard to understand despite not having a lot of code at the surface.

In my opinion it is very good for stuff like data analysis and scripting test setups, but (with my admittedly limited experience in the area) I dislike using it for larger applications. Because it is a scripting language and not compiled, I have run into errors that a compiled language would have detected before even starting. Meanwhile python was happy to run my program until it unfortunately branched into the defective path...

If you want to build stuff quickly it is incredibly what you can achieve with it though.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Because it is a scripting language and not compiled, I have run into errors that a compiled language would have detected before even starting.

Use type hints. Pyright in strict mode. (Don't use mypy, it's much worse.)

I agree though, it is poorly suited to larger applications. Mainly because of its glacial speed.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

1 agree with everything you wrote besides the Deno?

why Deno?

[–] cockmushroom@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

Kind of irrelevant wrt op but, as domeone who avoids js at all costs, i find deno to be essential as it offers a smorgasbord of code formatters ootb.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Typescript projects are a significant effort to set up with the traditional tooling (NPM & Node). With Deno you can literally just create a .ts file and run it.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

do you think it better than bun? (the anthropic acquisition and rust rewrite aside)

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

I haven't ever used Bun tbh.