The Most Important Languages

[Juju]

about spoken languages: I wonder why so few people in europe learn mandarin while it's suc an important language thinking globally...

Mandarin is indeed important when you're around China or anywhere in Asia, because, well, they're what, 1.4 billion by now? Outside Asia, I'm not sure it's widely spoken outside Chinatowns all over the world.

Contrast this to English, which is spoken everywhere the European had the idea to invade, which is pretty much everywhere. Literally. It's said it's easier to count the countries the British Empire haven't invaded. 22 countries. The British Empire invaded everything but a mere 22 countries, which accounts to about 90% of the world. So don't ask why English is spoken everywhere, because I think it's pretty much why.

[p2]

I speak english because I really love the word cucumber 

but I really think its stupid that so few people learn mandarin.
you can learn japanese EVERYWHERE but not mandarin... :/
also, english, mandarin, russian, german and spanish are all languages you need to be able to communicate almost everywhere...

[Patrick Davidson]

z80 doesn't count as a spoken language?

[kotu]

pmp squats and squash are not real words they are assembler noises.

C++
C
BASIC.

[Snektron]

BASIC.

TI-BASIC

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

Also, this topic is for important languages, not your favourite languages right? I have nothing against (ti) basic, but i do not think it is a really important language though.

[kotu]

BASIC.

TI-BASIC

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

Also, this topic is for important languages, not your favourite languages right? I have nothing against (ti) basic, but i do not think it is a really important language though.

that implies all a programmers knowledge will be ruined once he learns any BASIC, therefore the whole statement has been quashed.

edit**
and i think in fact most people Experience the reverse

anyway its on my list so
TROLL ENDING



*edit**
here is my impression of a web programmer...

PHP
JavaScript
HTML

[p2]

actually far less is done in PHP than most people think.
You pretty often jut use a CMS and pack it all in a software like IBM Notes or other alternatives. ^^
also lots of stuff is run by a java backend, not a PHP one

[kotu]

well, i only run two websites, so i don't care 

[p2]

I plan to maybe learn Swift soon. Are there any other Swift developers around?

[AmazoNKA]

Swift looks very promising in deed but I wonder if it will be limited to Apple systems only...
I like Swift but because it is based on C and objective-C I nominate first of all
C
Then JavaScript, C++

Spoken ones: English then Spanish and Chinese just because how widely they are used

[Sorunome]

While JS is a nice language I personally think it's been over-used, that every device, no matter how limited, kinda needs a JS runtime these days. And that other apps which are written in JS and thus perform poorly while they could have just been developed in like C++......

[xlibman]

I think BASIC still has its place, not as the most important language overall but one of the most important ones in the way that it's a startup language and many people, contrary to what some so-called experts claim, used it as a brige towards superior languages. However, it depends of how long you used BASIC.

As for JS I don't think it's very important anymore, because it always had severe cross-browser compatibility issues and many people have JS disabled. Flash is even worse. As for Java I'm not sure. What do you guys think about Python and Lua? Both seems pretty popular.

[p2]

In my mind BASIC isnt used as a language you learn ut rather as a tool to learn programming in general as thats where youre supposed to make your first contact with the most basic techniques like conditions and loops.
lua gets used in software running on routers and stuff but rather less on the internet in general. So you use it, but you dont even notice it most of the time.
Java is more and more used for servlets while on the other hand applets are dead (client-sided java in websites). Only a few simulation stuff for physics class and similar sites still us them.
JS is still rather important but also hard to use as you have to ensure compatibility with multiple browsers as you mentioned above. Still it gets used a lot as it somply comes a lot handier than the alternatives.
I sadly dont really know about python... All I know is that 99% of Kali linux (the PenTest OS) is based on python scripts which would make it rather importaant for pentesting/security in general...?

[Snektron]

Lua is nice, very small and embeddable, perfect scripting language for in a larger project.
Python is nice too, but i feel its a bit overhyped. Good for prototyping and small to medium projects though.
Lua is actually the first language i learned i feel like its the modern day equivalent of BASIC, it has simple syntax to learn programming in
but does have features a modern language would need, like functions.

[Unicorn]