Greetings all,
First post here. Stumbled into these forums searching for my next horizon..
I've been in IT for a number of years. Long ago I started basic programming on the old Commodore 64 and afterwards, worked solely in I.T. doing the jack of all trades master of none type of work for small > medium corporations.

Alas, I'm at a point where I want to broaden and specialize. All the offers for better positions seem to ask for Java as a plus but I was wondering what you all thought.

Please, only people in the industry working on a day to day basis as programmers please reply..

The question: What is the most profitable programming language to explore?
As a complete newb, I would be starting from scratch so to speak.
I did some work with C in college but I don't remember it at all. Pretty basic stuff.
I'm ok with HTML and was learning PHP on a needed basis on a basic level also.

I've heard a few mention Ruby on Rails. Might be nice to get in on something new and keep on top of it. I also see alot of job listings for Java. I'm also wondering what is the most comprehensive programming I could get into. IE: Something that is used for a broad variety of needs. IE: applications, database work, etc etc??

Thanks guys, really appreciate any advice other than go F yourself

S

I think I can find a better forum for this.

Moved.

Well, I'm not programming for a profession, but it is one of the things I want to do, so if you are happy to hear my ideas, then I'd say, probably best to pick up a bit of Visual Basic, before you try your hand at any of the others. Like its name suggests, it is easy, but I don't agree that it is basic. Anyway, after that, you could look at J# (Microsoft implementation of Java) or one of the two Cs. (C#, C++). Maybe you should try them all and see what is easy for you. If you have done some programming before, it should help you a bit.

I'm not a moderator... I'm also not offended, but this is probably not the best way to enter a new forum or to solicit advice from strangers.

Ps - No apologies for off-the-topic advice.

This post has been edited by Israel: 7 Jul, 2007 - 10:40 PM

You can't go wrong with C++ and Java - these are the two most used languages in the programming industry. That being said, once you picked up one language, many of the others are relatively simple to learn. Ruby is a great language as well, and coming on strong. If you know PHP, C would easy for you to learn for sure.

If you want to program for a living, and of the following will get your foot in the door:

C, C++, C#, Java, VB.NET (shudder) - and you can pick up innumerable others. All of those languages can be used for application to database to even web programming (although C#,vb.net and java are better for web programming). If web is your goal, php is a good way to go. Ruby's great for all of it.

Before I begin: I am a professional developer who programs on a day to day basis. But my opinion is still only valid within the realm of my experience. OK, on with the advice.

I will reiterate Amadeus by saying, learn Java and C++. I'm biased toward Java because it's my meal ticket and the salaries for Java experts can get pretty high these days. Java is a very versatile language, that has really come into its own over the past few years, but I will say that a lot of the Java you'll see in the industry is, at least partially, related to tiered web applications (data tier, business logic tier, interface tier, etc.). It's hard to escape the fact that business applications are increasingly web-based. That's not to say that there's not a lot of plain old Java programming to be done behind the scenes. But, from what I've seen, many enterprises use a web browser as their GUI, completely snubbing Java's GUI framework, Swing.

It's definitely a good idea to try several languages. But, at some point I would advise you to specialise in one. Keep you skills current in a few others, but become an expert in one language. I've seen a lot of beginner to mid level Java devs out there. The recruiters keep telling me that it's so difficult to find Senior Java developers. I think a big reason for that is because Java has so many good 3rd party Frameworks that it takes time discover them, much less master them. So, my theory is that not a lot of people don't bother going that far with it, but the reward for those that do is very nice. But, your choice of language to specialise in is really defendant on what kind of programming you want to do. Like I said, Java is versatile, but there are areas in which I'd choose another language. For instance, for driver programming, Operating System programming, embedded systems programming, and anything that requires the smallest fastest code (usually less concerned with OOP and portability than performance) I would choose C/C++. For a small, inexpensive web application, I might choose PHP because most low-end/free hosting providers have at least some version of PHP installed. If I wanted a more scalable, enterprise level web app, however, I'd definitely choose a Java-based system. For cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) GUI applications that you write and compile once, Java is the obvious choice.

Anyway, this is probably information overload. Hopefully you can gleen something from my post.

actually it's your choice, choose a language that you are comfortable or maybe a language that companies pay big time.

I have learned many language just like ASM, Pascal, C/C++, Visual Basic, and Java.
I like VB the most when I was in school but when I got a job I ended up as Java programmer... Actually for me I am willing to learn any languages as long as the company pays you a lot, for now the company I'm working pays higher as a Java programmer.

My two cents.
Start off with C++ or Java. While I prefer Java, both are great places to build from.

I started with HTML (not really programming), moved to C, C++, Java and then JavaScript, PHP, and ColdFusion.

With GML (GameMaker) and Ruby