this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2023
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Programming

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It seems like there are about ~~22~~ ~~27~~ ~~46~~ ~~219~~ ~~320~~ ~~493~~ 1840 active subscribers here. I have a few questions for you all.

  • Which programming languages do you regularly use?
  • Which are your favorite to work with and why?
  • Which do you have interest in trying and why?
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[–] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's not really a coding language but I use SQL a lot for work. Occasionally Python and R. As you can probably imagine with this list, I'm a data scientist.

My favorite to work with is actually autohotkey, which I use to automate stuff, because it can be a fun little challenge to figure out how to automate based on the system it's running on and what I'm trying to do.

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Funny how you said SQL Python and R, my mind immediately said data analysis.

I'm not sure what autohotkey is or does. Is it Windows only?

[–] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I could have sworn at one point it was cross platform but it's seemingly only Windows now

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

The Mandela Effect strikes again!

[–] YuzuDrink@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

AHK is a powerful scripting runtime for Windows, yeah. I use it to create custom media hotkeys when using a keyboard that doesn’t have actual media keys built in. But that probably the smallest tip-of-the-iceberg of what it can do.

I had to convince IT to let me keep it installed because it CAN be used by bad actors with how powerful it is. But it’s not too different from what any program on Windows could do; just makes a lot of basic things VERY easy.

[–] HalJor@beehaw.org 7 points 2 years ago

Favorite: Ruby, because everything makes sense. Once you get that "everything is an object", the rest just falls naturally into place. No other language has been so intuitive from that point.

Regularly use: JavaScript. I hate it because absolutely nothing makes sense. I don't even understand enough to explain more than that, yet somehow I'm able to copy/paste things that do work and tweak them enough until they do what I want. At least some of the time.

[–] AbelianGrape@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I teach a class taught in OCaml. Despite that, I don't really like OCaml. It's good for education but IMO not that great for actually using it. My brother works at Jane Street and even he agrees... Like, it's fine, but not great.

Beyond that I make regular use of Haskell and Python for my graduate research and personal projects. I recently took a course in Java, but unless I don't have a choice, I'd rather use Kotlin. I'm also involved in the hardware simulator Turing Complete, so a lot of my side projects lately have been ETCa assembly programs.

I want to learn Rust and Scala, probably in that order.

edit: I also quite like Scheme and I used it for advent of code last year. Unfortunately I don't get opportunities to use it much, but if I ever get to teach a compilers course, I want to try the "reverse nanopass" approach that is currently used, I believe, at Brown University.

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don’t really like OCaml. It’s good for education but IMO not that great for actually using it. My brother works at Jane Street and even he agrees… Like, it’s fine, but not great.

I don't get to converse with a lot of OCaml users. What makes it "not great"? Is it the tooling?

What is your graduate work on?

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[–] YuzuDrink@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago

At work, I use both Python and C++. At home I also try to use Rust where I can; but mostly C++, Python, and C# (largely for game engines)

[–] Neuromancer@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
  • Prehistoric C++: Core language for my main project at work. Unfortunately we're stuck with C++98, but it's still a massive improvement on C.
  • C: For some of the older parts of the aforementioned project
  • Python: For test automation for the aforementioned project, also rapidly becoming the main language within the community that covers my secondary work project. I used to really not care for Python, but to the extent it displaces MATLAB I'm 100% in favor of it. I've also grown to really like it in the test automation role. The only thing I could wish for is that it had a mode that required type hints across the board.
  • Modern C++: Used for my other work project. While I do think that C++11 is a huge step up from C++98, I think the later standards have added a lot of cruft and very little value. Given the choice I would definitely take modern C++ over C++98, but I'd really rather be writing something like Rust
  • Java: This was a mistake I made years ago when I started a project as a very junior developer. Unfortunately I work in a research context where even as the junior developer I was still the most experienced developer on the team when it came to some things. We needed a REST API for this project and doing it in C++ didn't seem feasible at the time (no idea if it's better now). Some other teams in my org where using Spring so I jumped on that bandwagon. In hindsight, I wish I had written the API in Python since we're slowly moving a lot of our C++ code into Python on that project now.
  • Shell: For automation that's just a little too easy to bother with Python
  • Rust: Only used on hobby projects for now, but it scratches the same itch as C++ a thousand times better. The language itself is wonderful once you get used to the borrow checker and cargo is an incredibly valuable part of the ecosystem as well.
[–] MistressRemilia@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Regularly use: Common Lisp (SBCL mainly) and Crystal.

Favorite to work with: same as above. They seem to match how I think well, so it's easy to solve problems in them. Their speed is also a nice bonus, as is Common Lisp's debugging and image-based development. I also really like how Crystal feels like a dynamic language (it's very reminiscent of Ruby), yet is still statically typed and compiled.

Interest in trying: m68k assembly for some ungodly reason lol

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

You're in the lead for the most unexpected reply. I didn't know that Crystal had any industry use. I didn't know mIuch about it though. I simply knew it existed.

I prefer to keep assembly behind the compilers it might as well be flipping individual bits to me.

[–] kool_newt@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Ooh, never heard of Crystal, looks awesome.

[–] Towerism@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Mainly JavaScript, typescript, html, and scss. Occasionally bash and groovy. My favorite to work with is typescript. It’s a superset of JavaScript so naturally JavaScript is a very close second. I am interested in ruby and rust. Just because those are the two languages that I have been enamored with in the past so they are the ones that I have spent more free time than any other learning about them and using them for side projects.

[–] zexu@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Towerism@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the suggestion!

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wow, I forgot about groovy! How is it to work with?

[–] Towerism@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Eh it’s not bad to work with. We use it for our Jenkins pipelines.

[–] kool_newt@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

I love Ruby, I wish it were more popular. I'm starting a Ruby + Sintatra project. Your post is making me want to try adding typescript in there.

[–] neosheo@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

I use python mainly because thats what i learned programming with. I like the bracketless design, no need to track down unclosed bracks/parenthesis plus its versatile and can do most anything.

Other the python the other one i mainly use is bash. I know JS and C but don't really use them much.

I want to learn more C just because Im interested in diving deeper into how memory is managed but just havent found a suitable project to start using it for.

Ive been learning a lot of web design and want to get back into JS because i wanna start doing frontend, since i mostly know backend.

That being said i'm also interested in php because i think it's cool that i could run a script directly on the backend without an api

[–] moeris@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Professionally, I mostly use Kotlin, Typescript, and Java.

For fun, I've recently been using BQN, which is quite nice compared to J, which I had been previously using. I also use Elm, Rust, Python and a smattering of others.

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The APL family of languages aren't the most popular, but there seems to be cult like followings of each variation.

[–] moeris@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Yeah, I think they're just the more vocal subset of users. The same thing happens in functional languages. (Especially Lisp.)

Array languages in general are fun to use because you can express a great deal in very little space. Of course, you have to think more about how to encode something, or even when reading. I feel like those are good muscles to exercise for when you're reading more densely written code in any language.

[–] 1rre@lemmy.org.uk 4 points 2 years ago

I work with C# & TypeScript, which frankly I don't find too bad

I love to work with Scala though, I find there's a really nice way to do almost everything, and C is nice because it allows so much control over what your program is actually doing - same with OCaml really, however the ability to use Java libraries in Scala makes it that bit better

I'd quite like to try Spatial for hardware in the future

[–] climufat@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At work it's mostly python, .net core and javascript (regrettably).

Personally, I used to write a lot in C and C++ for embedded, but recently diving more into other areas. Developing quite the love for Golang (GO) and it's simplicity.

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[–] Domiku@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

No Swift? I use it exclusively for my app development, but I also teach HS computer science. We use Java, JavaScript, and Python across my different classes.

I'd really like to learn Rust, but haven't had a compelling project to get me started.

[–] rothaine@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Typescript primarily.

[–] r3d5un@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Python and C# for the most part. I'm also putting serious effort towards learning Rust, but I likely won't be able to use it at work. It's a good learning experience, and I can tell that my code after learning basic Rust in C# and Python is better than before.

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[–] Garrathian@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

JavaScript/TypeScript (React, Angular), Python, PHP, Go, and Java (Spring) are all languages I've had to use for work in some form or another over the last year (not counting bash scripts and the like).

I like Go and Python the most. Used to like Java but it feels like overkill for the projects I support which are all smaller in scope. I would like to learn Rust or brush back up on my C at some point, it's been awhile since I've used it.

[–] Hexorg@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I regularly use Python, C++, and Java. My favorite are Rust, C, and assembly I want to try Haskell because it looks like pythoned rust. Yes I know Haskell is OG complex typing system, but I learned Rust and Python first.

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

If you don't need manual memory management, Haskell seems like a strong option for wrangle complexity.

[–] baal@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
  • Professionally I mostly work with C (no ++) for bare metal micro-controllers. Basically I'm using it to tie together HW peripherals with some communication library.
  • Python is my one-size fit's all tool for anything that has an OS. Testing, scripting, interfacing, it does it all.
  • I also used to work a bit with Erlang, which is my personal favourite programming language for its pure elegance and resilience.
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[–] zexu@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

JavaScript, Professionally i'm a React developer & you have almost everything in JS. I'm also learning zig lately & it's really cool.

[–] greysemanticist@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Regularly Use

  • bash
  • python
  • golang
  • rust
  • elm

Favorite

  • rust because it provides a pretty good expressive type system for letting the compiler keep you honest.
  • elm helps me avoid client-side programming hell with JavaScript.

Interested

  • zig because of its promise of "compile it for anything" and small language philosophy.
[–] el_cordoba@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My main languages are Ruby and Python (does SQL count?), but I dabble with Javascript when needed.

I have been liking Ruby more and more because of how easy it is to use and the community support it has. I have really appreciated RSpec, and that's the main reason I enjoy it over Python.

I really want to get into Rust because it is so different from Ruby. I am also a strong supporter of adopting a different language if you need to. I am not a fan of introducing types into Ruby or Python because there are other languages that have it built in and also the dynamic nature of those languages are their strengths.

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[–] paccio@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Mostly C++, I develop back-end with algorithms that require all the performance we can get. We 're currently trying Rust for a small project, I hope it will succeed, I definitely love this language. And python when merformance is not the main concern.

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[–] pattern@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

At work I mostly use Matlab and a smattering of C++, at home I'm trying to learn more C++ but prefer to use python. I think my next endeavor will be learning Rust, not sure yet what I'll use it for though.

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[–] hazelnoot@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I regularly work with C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, and PHP. Of those, C# and TypeScript are my favorites. I'm also planning to try out Rust eventually, but atm I don't have time to learn such a complex language.

  • C# - Very clean and concise syntax, performant runtime, excellent standard libraries and tooling. Later versions (.NET Core and newer) have top-tier async, generics, and DI implementations. Biggest downsides are reliance on a runtime and lack of union types. Ever tried to implement ActivityPub (or any other polymorphic API) in C#? Not a good time.
  • TypeScript - the best type system that I've ever worked with. With a bit of thought and planning, you can model complex requirements directly into the type system. The language is comfortable and easy to use, although some advanced types can become hard to read. Its biggest flaw is that its tied to JavaScript. I would love to one day see a language that's basically just C# + TypeScript's type system.
  • JavaScript - I only use it in legacy code. For anything else, I just use TypeScript.
  • PHP - I actually have a fondness for PHP, even though its not one of my favorite languages. I'm still maintaining one hobby website in full-custom PHP 8. The language has developed a lot recently and has resolved many of the classic problems that made it so awful in the PHP 5 era. Its well on its way to becoming a viable option once again.
  • Rust - Rust is the first language that I believe has a real chance of displacing C++. It solves the same problems with dramatically more safety, and has all the bells and whistles of a modern language to boot. I probably wont use it much in my work (I mostly develop LOB apps and websites), but I do expect it to gain widespread use within low-level and high-performance applications over the next 10 years.
[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

TypeScript - the best type system that I’ve ever worked with. With a bit of thought and planning, you can model complex requirements directly into the type system. The language is comfortable and easy to use, although some advanced types can become hard to read. Its biggest flaw is that its tied to JavaScript. I would love to one day see a language that’s basically just C# + TypeScript’s type system.

I feel like you'd appreciate Ocaml, ReasonML, and ReScript.

The future of Rust seems promising. I'm also intrigued by Odin as an alternative to C.

[–] hazelnoot@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for the recommendations! OCaml and ReasonML look really interesting. But tbh I'm not quite sure what the advantage of ReScript is over TypeScript.

[–] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

ReScript is Ocaml but using a different compiler that follows JavaScript standards more closely. The entire Javascript ecosystem is available to ReScript.

ReasonML is Ocaml. The entire Ocaml ecosystem is available to ReasonML

[–] karce@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • Rust and Python. Python for work
  • Rust is by far the best language I've ever used and I've used a lot of them. It really can do everything and is reliable and safe as well.
  • I want to convert all of our projects at work to Rust as well if I had it my way entirely. Only thing to do is train my team on using it.
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[–] lunasloth@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Primarily TypeScript. It... eh. It makes dealing with larger codebases with a bunch of people working on it way better. For solo/hobby programming (which I never do anyway), I probably wouldn't bother. I generally just hate the entire JS/npm ecosystem, build tools, etc.

I kind of want to check out F# at some point since I feel like I keep hearing about it. There's also a part of me that misses Ruby, which I haven't used in years.

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