I’ve been working with a Javascript (+ TypeScript) + Java + SQL stack for the last 10 years.

For 2024 I’d like to learn a new programming language, just for fun. I don’t have any particular goals in mind, I just want to learn something new. If I can use it later professionally that’d be cool, but if not that’s okay too.

Requirements:

  • Runs on linux
  • Not interested in languages created by Google or Apple
  • No “joke languages”, please

Thank you very much!

EDIT: I ended up ordering the paperback version of the Rust book. Maybe one day I’ll contribute to the Lemmy code base or something :P Thank you all for the replies!!!

  • jaxxed@lemmy.world
    185·
    10 months ago

    No jokes: pick a language that is in the market, but has a different design philosophy than your background. Your background includes compiled static, and loose scripting, with strong library tooling, so you have diversity there, so a language in which you have to think differently is the right choice.

    I recommend:

    1. Rust if you want something safe but that makes you work differently from java
    2. Go if you want a real mental challenge (the coding approach is very different from java)
    3. Lua if you want really see functional programming as a philosophy
    4. Python if you want scripting, and are tired of the web
    • BatmanAoD
      16·
      10 months ago

      Go if you want a real mental challenge

      I don’t mean to be rude, but I find this baffling; what do you mean by it? One of the primary design goals of Go is to be simple to learn (this is fairly well documented), and it’s one of the few things I really have to give the language credit for. Rob Pike has specifically discussed wanting it to be accessible to recent CS graduates who have mostly used Java. I have never heard anyone before describe learning Go as a “challenge.”

    • yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca
      7·
      10 months ago
      1. Lua if you want really see functional programming as a philosophy

      I’m pretty sure that Lua doesn’t follow functional programming as a philosophy…