Top 10 programming languages

Perhaps not that useful, but I decided to make my personal top 10 favorite programming languages.

1 C

Still my number 1. I don’t think any high level language gives you so much control as C, and it’s super fast. Kind of the Swiss army knife of programming. Dangerous to use, but that’s what keeps you alert. Having started with assembly there’s still a weird attraction to pointers and direct bit manipulation.

2 Python

Using python makes programming so much faster and easier. It’s like working pseudo code. Despite it’s popularity still underrated. Combined with C (in case you need speed or low-level access) there’s no need for any other programming language. Standard Python is surprisingly fast for an interpreted language. For more speed you can always compile (pypy) or combine with C.

3 Java

Great design. It’s how C++ should have been. I’ve been writing Java since one of the earliest versions when applets where still in fashion. Now I only use it for Android programming. Somehow Java doesn’t seem to be that efficient to me.

4 Assembly

After some initial Basic this is what you had to use on C64. You can’t get any closer to the processor. Turbo Pascal made it easy to optimize code using inline assembly. Programming in assembly is completely different from writing in higher level languages. You have to split up even the most basic stuff into even more basic commands. On pc (inline) assembly is mostly for very low level programming or speed improvements, but modern compilers probably do a better job at that than me. The fun of the C64 was to keep on rewriting code to squeeze as much as possible into 4096 bytes.

5 Go

Kind of C with the ease and safety of Python. I’m starting to like this more and more. This one could quickly climb the rankings. Very nice design, almost as easy and readable as Python, but with type safety and the speed of C.

6 C++

Object oriented C. Should have been the perfect language, but I prefer either plain C or for OOP something like Python or Java. Since the first few versions of C++ it’s become a very complicated language that’s tricky to use safely.

7 Pascal

Made for learning but also good for development. Especially with the Turbo Pascal OOP features. I learned a lot typing Pascal on VAX VMS terminal and have been using it (with inline assembly) for quite a few applications. I’m not using Pascal anymore, but I prefer the language over the rest of this list.

8 PHP

Terrible design, but pretty much the standard for web development. I don’t like it. I’ve got a memory that can recall a couple of hundreds of decimals of pi, but I still can’t use PHP without constantly duckduckgoing the manual. Way too many inconsistencies.

9 Basic

About the first thing I used. Complete with line numbers, and without full screen editor. Modern variations are actually not that bad, but who wants to be known as a Basic programmer if the B stands for beginner.

10 Lua

Not my favourite, but quite nice. It’s mainly here to keep JavaScript out of the top 10.

And finally: did I mention that I hate Javascript? I just don’t get it. I know the syntax, but real code still looks like a foreign language. One I don’t understand that is.

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