So i have a lot of experience in C++, C# and Ruby, and a decent amount of experience in Java. What i'm really looking for is something that has a good web framework and it easily multi-platform / multi-architecture. I really want to be more dynamic and programmer friendly, like ruby. C# is great, but only works perfectly in Windows. Mono is a great tool, but it's decently behind Microsoft. Ruby is by far one of my favorites, but it's primary web framework known as Rails will not run on Power or SPARC processors due to an issue with the V8 javascript runtime. Ruby also has a not so great garbage collector and some other small things that can be problematic in very specific situations. Multi-threading also is a weak point unless you use JRuby. Java, my most hated and simultaneously loved programming language. My main problem is how ancient some of the things it's carries along with it to support older applications. It is a lot like C++ to me, except more cryptic. It can be very fast, but it provides no direction so it becomes easy to write spaghetti code. As much as i love the technology behind the JVM and the performance it can give me on any platform, i just don't find it as productive. I am really thinking about Python. The more i read about python the more i fall in love with it. The documentation is superb, the language is dynamic and expressive. It is much like Ruby, but without the cons. Django is also very strong. The JIT compiler also makes it similar to C#. I want to be able to write more than a web application, but also normal applications which python does. As far as i can see it will run on any architecture but i am uncertain about Django in this situation. It has OpenGL libraries as well so i can write small games in it if i ever go down that road. C++ is cool, but it's too low level for what i want to do right now and i am unaware of any web frameworks for it. What are your guy's opinions. EDIT: or maybe c++ isn't a bad option http://cppcms.com
I'm no programmer in my "professional life" (aka starving student), but I fell in love with python as soon as I touched it. The interpreted/interactive paradigm was new to me and quite a revelation. Also, INDENTS, you gotta love indents and overall readability.
Google's "Go" might be interesting. I haven't played a lot with it, but it appears to be basically C++(-with-garbage-collection)/C# plus libraries that focus heavily on web applications.
This is just personal preference, but I hate Python. I hate indenting vs braces, and i'd like to think that if your a good programmer, you'll indent anyways. I think perhaps the most useful language to learn these days is Java. It works on all major platforms, and Eclipse IDE makes it a snap to get started.
