Which Coding Language was the Toughest to learn?

9 years ago

C was my first programming language and it was tough for me because it was my first language and it is kinda strict in a coding and syntax sense. Then I learned PHP was way more easier but it might be due to the fact that I already had programming knowledge. I do some Javascript as well. So out of three that I have learned C is the toughest.

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jonatan30 9 years ago

Unlike Java and C#, C is a procedural programming language. I think that makes it difficult to learn or maintain the codes.
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jwarfom

9 years ago

I'd nominate Erlang, but like most people I just read the book and never wrote any code.

Haskell is hard but that's mostly because it's introducing some concepts that you've probably never had to take a deep look at before. The language itself isn't the hard part.

Maybe C++, but that's only because there are many dark and scary corners that have built up over the years.

The question, though, is usually only relevant to true beginners. Many programming languages are roughly equivalent. Once you've got a deep understanding of the basics, learning a new language takes very little time. Learning your fourth or fifth programming language takes a tiny fraction of the time it takes to learn the first or second.

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adisoy

9 years ago

If you have no interest to learn a coding language then it would seem to be too difficult for you whether it is html/ php/ C#/ C++/ Pythen/ Java/ or any other coding language.
You must have confidence as well as interest to learn a coding language. When you show some interest in it its several qualities automatically attract you to show more interest in it.

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javrsmith

9 years ago

IBM mainframe JCL has been the hardest for me. I started with Pascal and BASIC in school then moved to C. I like the control, but it is dangerous. Once I had that, FORTRAN and C++ weren't too hard. Have worked with PHP, Python and Java. I've done a bit with COBOL but don't like it due to the overhead. I can fix a COBOL program but wouldn't know how to start one from scratch. SQL is a good one to learn when you are dealing with data.

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dmp

9 years ago

Java will certainly continue to be relevant and will probably maintain its position as no.1 overall platform for software development for a long time.
Firstly, reasons why Java is and will continue to be a strong choice:

Java is still the most popular langauge - and this means it has the most developers, most ongoing development, largest installed base etc. There is no sign of any sharp decline - if you look at the TIOBE trend for example it could easily continue to be No.1 for the next 10-15 years
Java, despite its flaws, is still an excellent language for developing enterprise applications. The fact that it is verbose and tends to promote a fairly standardized style of OOP development is a good thing when applications need to be maintained by many different developers over many years in a fairly standardized way. Smart CIOs realize this, which is why you won't see Java disappearing in the enterprise any time soon. BTW, and explicit goal of Java when it was created was that it should be "simple, object oriented, and familiar".
The sucess of languages is not just about the language itself, but around the ecosytem of libraries available for the language. In this respect, Java is second to none, with a massive array of open source and commercial libraries.
Performance - JIT compiled code on modern JVMs runs very close to optimised native code in terms of speed. In practice, this means that Java is typically one of the fastest language/implementation combinations available (see flawed benchmarks if you like). Anyone who thinks that Java is slow (or, for goodness sake, "interpreted") needs to update their facts from the last century.
Major corporate backing - Java is a strategic platform supported by many of the worlds largest and most important technology companies and organisations - we are talking about Google, Oracle, IBM, the Apache Software Federation etc. Java also has substantial support from major users of technology - banks, media companies etc. No other language/platform has such broad industry support (even if the players have the occasional tiffs :-) )
Android - is giving a major boost to Java in the mobile space. Lots of startups are targeting this, and it's not unreasonable to expect that mobile startups will also have good reason to pick Java on the server side as well.
Portability: Java is the closest thing in existence to a genuine cross-platform programming environment. It's on everything from high end servers to smartphones, and compiled pure Java code will run unmodified on all these platforms. Very few languages can say this with the same degree of credibility. Also as a bytecode language, Java has an inherent advantage in the library space because compiled libraries are inherently portable across platforms.
Excellent tools - most of which are free and/or open source. Netbeans and Eclipse are great examples in the IDE space. Developers need good tools to be fully productive, so this is an important factor in language/platform choice.
Java is Open Source - not going to go into why this is a good thing here, but suffice it to say that both a) the core Java implementation in the OpenJDK and b) most of the interesting Java libraries and tool are open source.
Java is not just a language, it's a platform: there are many promising languages on the JVM such as Clojure and Scala that represent the future of the platform on the language front. My prediction would be that the Java language continues to recieve minor enhancements to features (JDK 7, 8 etc.) while these new JVM languages are where the cutting edge innovation will happen. But it is all part of the Java platform.

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aegisinfoways

9 years ago

It really depends on whether or not you want to be able to do something use full with the language.

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Pilchardp

9 years ago

For me the most complicated was C++

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himaja

9 years ago

According to me, Java is the toughest programming language to learn and PHP is the easiest coding language to learn. The Coding Languages that I know are C, .NET and PHP. For me the PHP Coding Language is very important.

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Pava

9 years ago

Originally Posted by himaja

According to me, Java is the toughest programming language to learn and PHP is the easiest coding language to learn. The Coding Languages that I know are C, .NET and PHP. For me the PHP Coding Language is very important.

Actually Java is simple. Yes it's got some legacy stuff but modern Java is easy as hell:

PHP Code:

  Path file = Paths.get("files/1.txt");
Files.lines(file)
                .filter(string -> string.contains("o"))
                .forEach(s -> System.out.println("this line contains 'o': " + s));

Reads file line by line and prints matched lines

A very easy language is Python. I would start with it (NOT PHP!!!)

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brettb

9 years ago

I find JavaScript the hardest thing I need to do on a day to day basis. I find C# generally easier, not least because the compiler flushes out most errors of the type that drive me crazy in JavaScript.

I've learnt Angular.JS recently - it's been pretty easy except for a few things which can be a real hassle (e.g. drop-down lists).

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PBScott

9 years ago

Assembler is a bit rough because you have to have a good knowledge of the machine you are using to work with it. You need to allocate memory and move things around in the CPU registers with it. You work in HEX not ANSCII. Thankfully I only worked in Assembler for a few months.

I didn't find Assembler all that tough to learn, just very tough to work with, it takes forever to get things done.

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Raymond Kiyingi

9 years ago

Android was the toughest (up to now I can't tell if it's a distinct language). Python was easiest for me, Python for network engineers. i Know C,C++, VB and network engineering(It isn't a language but I spend most of my time in networking).

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Martin smith

9 years ago

For me C++ is the toughest language..

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uitechsol

9 years ago

Originally Posted by BuzzBrudda

For all of your programmers and developers I'd love to know which coding language was the hardest to learn and which was the easiest?

How many languages do you know? And which are the most important to you?

Hi,
I would say "Assembly" It's a lot of work, but if you are proficient with it, you can create very efficient programs. The thing is it takes a lot of time to program in assembly given how low level it is, not even all the Windows code is written in assembly, only parts of it.
I've Tried Java, C++, Visual Basics, HTML, CSS, SQL, And Machine Language....

I would Rank Them In This Order Easiest To Hardest.

HTML
CSS
PHP
SQL
Visual Basics
C++/Java
Machine Language

I Found Machine Language To Be The Hardest And Most Unforgiving....

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Mitch Boo

9 years ago

I have been programming since the early eighties, and have used Basic, Pascal, C, PHP, Perl, JavaScript.

When I tried Objective-C, I was hit by disgust. Why they made it so abstruse is beyond comprehension.

No wonder they had to implement Swift for normal human beings ...

Today, I use primarily Xojo which is a strong type, OOP version of RealBasic. Main advantage is that the same source will compile Windows and Mac executable, so I can offer both lines of apps in the Mac App Store, the Windows Store, and Amazon (plus my own sites of course).

For Web, I use a combination of HTML/CSS/Javascript plus a drop or two of Php, as well as some portions of Xojo Web. In particular, the back office that listens to Paypal IPN and delivers downloads to customers is in Xojo.