Is there anything a traditional programming language could do better than Lisp?
494319
The question of which is the "best" programming language has been the subject of debate for as long as there have been computers. Or well, more accurately, since we've had languages more user-friendly than raw assembler code and punch cards.\n\nThe answer is that there is no ONE ultimate programming language that is best for everything, just as there is no one car that is suitable for all purposes. I would not presume to drive the family SUV on a race track, and I wouldn't take a Formula One for a bit of off-roading fun either.\n\nSimilarly, part of software design is choosing the right tool for the job. Sure, if a language is flexible enough, you could probably MAKE it bend over backwards to suit a given purpose. But why re-invent the wheel?\n\nSo, personally, here are some examples...\n\nFor compiled applications that need to run on a desktop environment in Windows or Linux, my choice is...\nBorland Delphi\n\nFor web applications...\nMySQL with Python or PHP, depending on what's available on the server (I'll pick mod_php over CGI-only Python if those are the only choices).\n\nFor web applications requiring more interactivity on the client side, ActionScript 2 (Flash)\n\nFor automated text processing...\nPerl\n\nFor customization in AutoCAD...\nLisp\n\nFor just simple plain good old fun with a really elegant programming language and logical puzzles...\nForth
1077587
Here's the TCL website:\n\nhttp://www.tcl.tk/\n\nTCL is pretty general purpose, but I'd say it's probably not very widely used.  I think I might have used it once, a long time ago.  It's a scripting language, like Perl or Python.  Generally scripting languages are much slower than languages like C, Java, Ada, etc.  I find with scripting languages in general that I use them mostly to write small programs very quickly.  Those languages don't have the overhead of more high-powered languages, so small chores get done faster.
133762
It depends o what you want to do with it. java is widely used ut a bit bulky and has too much of legacy. Python and ruby are new entry - etter designed, ut low in acceptability. smalltalk is almost extinct now. For AI lisp is good.\n\nFor job probably java is safe bet. But no language is difficult to master once you have grasped one properly, and no language will last for life time. So you got to learn a few.\n\nI would vote for java, ruby & lisp - in that order...
567969
Yes; java is hot right now and could be a great benefit to you.  It teaches you a lot about low level lanquages and the computer interface to the hardware.  At times though I question the efficency of the language.  It takes a lot of time compared to some tools.
1081907
Hey itchy,\n\nYou should try Python.  It's a programming/scripting language that is easy to learn and it runs on all the major operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.\n\nPython is free!\n\nYou can download a free book about how to program in Python here:\nhttp://www.byteofpython.info/\n\nYou can get a tutorial here:\nhttp://docs.python.org/tut/\n\nYou can get Python for Windows here (it already comes with Mac OS X)\nhttp://www.python.org/\n\nYou can get good jobs with Python also.  Google uses a lot of Python.\n\nYou could try C or C++, but that is just going to hurt your head.  Better to start with Python, Ruby, or something like that.\n\nIf you want to try Ruby instead, there is a good tutorial here:\nhttp://poignantguide.net/ruby/\n\nYou can download Ruby for Windows here -- it is also free:\nhttp://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl\n\nBoth Ruby and Python are great for making regular programs, and also for making dynamic web sites.\n\nOne other option is to download Ubuntu Linux.  It's free, and all of the programming stuff is free also.  It comes with Python, and you can get Ruby, C, C++, Gambas, and many other languages for free with just a few mouse clicks.  Check it out:
26631
Short answer, it depends what you want.\n \nThe guy who though that Prolog was the most powerful was tripping.  Logic languages like Prolog are the best for for some unusual domains, but they're actually pretty limiting - a lot of sorts of programs are a lot harder to write in Prolog than they'd be in almost anything else.\n\nI think it might be useful to have the facilities of Prolog lying around in a library, ready to use on the rare occasion that they're a good fit, but I'd never want to write most of a program in Prolog.\n\nMy favorite language is one that time forgot, smalltalk.  It has a number of features missing from most programming environments:\n1. You can save the state of a running program (threads and all), and restore it (sort of like putting a laptop into hibernation).\n2. You can debug and rewrite programs while they are running. You can rewrite a routine and restart it, deep inside of a calculation. Programs and data can be edited live. And data can always be saved and reused - you don't have to recreate data each time, or figure out a way to save it and initialize it each time.\n3. The entire system, gui and all, has source code available all of the time.  It has browsers that make it easy to search through the code and find things.\n4. It's just a syntax thing, but all of the parameters are named in a function call - that tends to make code easier to read.\n5. The language was designed for humans not computers - it leaves out everything that other languages put in to make programs more efficient for the computer - leaving that stuff out gets rid of a lot of clutter.  \n6. Since it has no restrictive data typing on variables you're less likely to make a decision early on that limits how you can finish a program.\n\nUnfortunately I'm not sure if I can recommend a great smalltalk system.  You can download Squeak, and it's good and has a lot of users, but it's not professional grade. Parts of it have rough edges, and it's not the fastest version of smalltalk.\n \nYou could play with the free (for noncommercial use)  version of Cincom (runs on everything) - or buy the commercial version if you have $500 to blow.\n\nOn Windows you could buy a copy of Dolphin.\n\nResearchers (now employed at Sun) showed that it's possible to write an optimizing compiler for Smalltalk that makes it as fast as other languages, but Sun canned that project and put those people on Java.\n\n...\n\nOn the other hand, if you want a language designed to force software to be reliable, (say for medical or military use) you could go to the opposite end of the spectrum and program in Ada.  The newest versions of Ada are a good language, and GNU makes a free version (GNAT).\n\nI'm mostly used to C++, but I don't think of it as a good language, just as one I'm used to.\n\nThere's a mania for strongly typed functional languages among academia these days.  I'm not the hugest fan of those.  Some of them have a few nice tricks built into them, but I'm convinced that strongly typed languages force you to "optimize too soon" and make decisions too early in your design process.
214214
You can use Perl with Java. The simplest interface is called Inline::Java, and can be found in the CPAN.  You can also intermingle Java and Perl applications, using the "JPL" library.
1159809
My votes go for Stani's Python Editor (SPE), which is free, open source, and very cool. Has lots of useful extensions built in like kiki for regexps.\nalso you can use PythonWin.
1145281
For bare necessities - C\nFor object oriented programming - Java/C++\nFor playing around with web pages on the browser - Javascript\nFor playing around with web pages on the server - PHP\nFor intellectual delight - LISP\nFor elegance - Ruby On Rails
483955
Easiest language does not exist. All languages use more or less same API functions calls, so the difference is mainly in their syntax.\nIf you want to draw only, even Java or C# are good enough.\nIf you want to be strong in graphics programming, you need some of lower level languages as C/C++, Pascal, FORTRAN, etc. with which can use professional libraries as, e.g., OpenGL.
69889
Java or C.\nChoose Java, because it's similar to C, and easier to learn, due to Java's consistent handling of storage locations by reference, and automatic handling of memory management.  As a bonus, you can run your program on any system that supports Java, and embed your program as an applet accessible from anywhere with Internet access. Should you require more efficiency, you can relatively easily translate your program in Java, to a program in C, after you learn and know C.\n\nI'm limiting my answer based on the assumption that you personally want to *learn* a programming language.  You would likely expend fewer resources by simply giving your problem data to a programmer for hire.  If your script conversion doesn't require capabilities like grammar recognition, any programmer with a clue can code a basic utility in minutes.\n\nNote to programmers: I base this learning approach on a graduated, learn as you need to know, rationale, that leaves open a transition path to maximum product efficiency (C or C/assembly), or to high efficiency with a graphical interface (C or C++).  I acknowledge that less ubiquitous higher level languages exist that are better suited for specific types of text processing.
344830
If, as I suspect, you are referring to zero generation languages; you will need to study the binary instructions and data formats for each processor that you will program for.  This is the original way that software was written.  It is hand entered in binary, octal or hexadecimal format and saved as a file.  This is ever so inefficient and time consuming.  First generation language, assembly, is far more efficient and can do everything that zero (somtimes called first) generation programming can.  Later, higher level languages were developed such as COBOL and C, C++ Java and Forth.  I recommend learning any and all you can, but there is no need trying to dive into really low level languages such as machine code or assembly first.  Learn with something such as Python, Java or even C first, then branch to as many as you want up and down the scale.  Good luck.
1014632
chigidem, armen jan. :-p\n\nThis is why I've created my own language and compiling system. Sure, it took a TON of work at first... but in the end, I ended up doing menial tasks in seconds instead of minutes or hours. :-p
440580
Software programming.
1104571
There is no "best" language. If you're making something world with a mechanical / electrical device that you made yourself (wow), then I'd suggest something low level as well.\n\nAt the highest level probably C or C++. If you wanted it to be amazingly fast (but difficult to code), use Assembly.
1078681
i think the easiest and funnest way to start is HTML.\nYou can get the hang of code and then move on to Java Script, then Java.\n\nIf you want you do C then C+
892567
<Ruby on Rails> do you calling this a web programming,script???\nWell ASP is good,but it's little unpowerful\n\nPHP is better than ASP./More secure,more powerful,more faster and much more!/