21 replies to this topic

[homes32]

Just for fun.
We have a number of developers floating around reboot. What are your preferred coding language and why? Also feel free to say your least favorite language, but lets not turn this into a my language is better than your language flame fest!

[u2o]

For me it is difficult to answer for one. I choose C++ because that's what I want to know well. I could do whatever I wanted with it. But I haven't the time to learn.

But, really by my necessity... vb6. For now I use a lot of Visual Basic. Also AutoIt, Pascal, BatchScript, VBScript, NSIS and InnoSetup. The latter two can also be used to make a quick few things ... and of course also the necessary installers.

We can't do everything in one programing language ... since each has different impact on the system, and a determinate scope defined by the (high level of the) programing language, or depending on the level of development that has acquired the language itself.

Over time, I have a lot modularized code (vb6) with all the most common routines, and now it is difficult to switch to another language.
Routines and syntax on VBStudio 2010/2011 are much improved, but a big problem with the runtimes needed... can't be done a really portable application.

All need C++

Edited by u2o, 31 May 2012 - 02:23 AM.
bad line

[Brito]

I know what you mean about VB. I am trying to port a project from another developer to the most recent VBStudio and there are so many warnings/errors that I just feel like writing the whole application from scratch.

Nowadays my coding preference goes to POJO (Plain Old Java Objects). If something web related is needed then I opt to write in PHP or Beanshell, I try to get as far as possible from J2EE and related options such as Hibernate, SEAM, (...) as I simply feel that I spend too much time configuring/debugging them to run rather than programming with them.

In the past, Delphi and Turbo pascal were my long time weapons of choice because I could add short snippets of assembler directly into my high-level source-code. Nowadays it gets very difficult to find good/updated libraries for Delphi Pascal.

I don't use intensively batch scripts so much. When I did back in the 90's, I seriously loved programming with 4DOS: http://msmvps.com/bl...ke-command.aspx

[homes32]

I never did like VB. And the whole DLL/ocx hell didn't help any. Had to use it anyway for a bit back in the 90's for a few access databases. Never looked back since then.

For day to day tasks i generally use Autoit as its very quick and simple to whip up a script for the task at hand. Gui's are also a snap and it beats the pants off batch/shell (which I occasionally still use on the unix boxes) For jobs requiring more power and flexability you cant beat c++. So far I haven't come up against anything I couldn't handle with one or the other.

[morronic]

Autoit. So easy. I've successfully made applications ranging from installers/Malware removal/backup solutions/etc. Easiest interface to use and doesn't litter up my screen like Visual Studio. I'm beginning to learn c++ but have reached some dead ends with some projects i'm working on. Object oriented programming is just hard for me to understand..

[skyide]

C++ all the way.

 

Many othger languages are based on the C++ syntax: Java, C#, PHP, JavaScript etc.

 

Learn C++ and you should have no issues adopting to any other C++ like language but you might find some of them limiting to work with.

 

For instance, I am used to pass function/method arguments by reference for primitive types and Java won't let you do this (as far as I know) unless you allocate memory on the heap and you treat it as an array - it sucks.

 

I was porting some C++ projects from Windows to Java and I found this bit frustrating as I had cases where a function requires a reference parameter of a primitive type and I could not do it with Java so my work around was to instantiate it on the heap or use a global var (something that I did not want to do). Another thing I found frustrating was that I could not treat an integer as a boolean so I had to type cast it.

 

Other languages I tired have other issues so out of them all, if I was given a choice, it would be C++.

 

Having said all that, the main reason I would choose C++ over any other language is speed, efficicency and memory management.

 

They are my reasons but that's just me I am sure other people would disagree.

[Brito]

I had cases where a function requires a reference parameter of a primitive type

 

would you provide an example? I'm not understanding clearly what you mean.

 

 

Another thing I found frustrating was that I could not treat an integer as a boolean so I had to type cast it.

 

Likely not an elegant solution but might help:

http://stackoverflow...t-if-statements

 

Personally, I just adopted Enum instead of booleans, strings or integers when I need to have different categories. Learned that it was possible to override enum when wanting to treat it as a String. Example here: https://github.com/t...leCategory.java

 

I also found this page interesting: http://stackoverflow...enum-return-int

 

 

Having said all that, the main reason I would choose C++ over any other language is speed, efficicency and memory management.

 

Good reasons. Have you ever tried Qt? If so, can you tell me a bit about your experience?

 

[dencorso]

Not C++. Not C#. Plain, good, old C, of course.

[skyide]

Have you ever tried Qt? If so, can you tell me a bit about your experience?

 

 

If I could rate Qt and give it a score out of 10, I'd give it 10/10 - no questions asked.

Originally, I've been coding with Borland's (now Embarcadero's) C++ Builder and the VCL since C++ Builder 6.0, currently with 2010 and I think it is the best framework every created - no questions asked.

Then I decided to give Qt a chance (for the sake of getting some wider experience) and I feel the same about Qt! Both frameworks (VCL and Qt) are absolutely great.

Simply put, if you are experienced with C++ Builder and C++ Builder’s VCL, you should have little trouble adopting to Qt and vice versa. Although, fundamentally, the way they operate is different, once you understand the differences, you’ll find it very easy to adopt to the rest. With Qt you have singals and slots and events, (in reality, they are all events) where with C++ Builder and the VCL, you have just events.

My latest product, Advanced Network Configurator is purely written in Qt and it is a port of the C++ Builder version of the software.

[paraglider]

c++ for utilities that run on pe. c# everywhere else except at work where parts of the system I work on are written in vb.net.

[Brito]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[erwan.l]

Delphi as it is a native language (i.e does not depend on a runtime), allows assembler snippets (not on latest version thus).

It is to me the best compromise between a low level language and a nice IDE to develop user front ends.

I start to develop on pascal on a x86 about 30 years ago : I am way to addicted to let go on that one.

Plus it seems Delphi might have a future : android, apple, arm, x64, etc support are there with latest versions.

Not to mention FreePascal which supports even more and is for free.

 

C# / VB.net (these are alike for me except for the syntax : I might get shot there as I know there is a contreversy about vb.net vs c#).

Despite depending on a runtime (framework), it is easy to deploy, intuitive and benefits from a huge support/community out there.

In fact I have taken my kids on a dev tour around vb.net and gaming : see a serie of article from me here.

 

PHP + Javascript : when it comes to develop a web app quickly and efficiently, PHP+JS is unbeatable.

 

One platform I cannot stand : Java.

Despite a very nice C like syntax, the JRE is just a nightmare.

It is fat, nowadays bloated with malwares/spywares, and each version seems to bring more incompatibilities with previous ones.

So this is more the IT talking now rather than the dev guy.

 

And of course, all this is very personal

 

/Erwan

[u2o]

Delphi as it is a native language (i.e does not depend on a runtime), allows assembler snippets (not on latest version thus).

It is to me the best compromise between a low level language and a nice IDE to develop user front ends.

I start to develop on pascal on a x86 about 30 years ago : I am way to addicted to let go on that one.

Plus it seems Delphi might have a future : android, apple, arm, x64, etc support are there with latest versions.

Not to mention FreePascal which supports even more and is for free.

 

I'm a pc technician (10 years working on), For years I have used VB6, it was very fast after having created modules, to create almost any utility to speed up my work (and the work of 3 members of my team) on each pc. 

After many encounters with ocx / dlls that were missing compatibility with each new Windows, I decided to switch to another programing language. And I started with Lazarus (Delphi free). As you pointed it does not need runtimes, everything always works ... and in specific cases, use function calls the Windows APIs. It is the best I have found and tried, honestly I did't migrate to another language anymore. However bothers me a little that the binaries are so great (including removing debugging code) the binary not weigh less than 4MB, except if we does't include the GUI forms (that way 200KB).

 

I was able to migrate all my applications... It was not easy in some cases because some types are expressed differently. But I got amazing results!

[Brito]

Despite a very nice C like syntax, the JRE is just a nightmare.

It is fat, nowadays bloated with malwares/spywares, and each version seems to bring more incompatibilities with previous ones.

So this is more the IT talking now rather than the dev guy.

 

Got to thank Oracle for that brilliant n00b move.

 

I've kind of solved it. Started shipping the Windows JRE with the software. Solved the problem of not requiring users to install anything on their side. The problem is that my software now needs 100Mb on disk and the download is about 50Mb (with the JRE compressed).

 

Still the best platform I found so far to write code that runs in Linux, Windows and OSX without fuss. Unfortunate Oracle influence.

[skyide]

 

Still the best platform I found so far to write code that runs in Linux, Windows and OSX without fuss. Unfortunate Oracle influence.

 

Although I agree Java is pretty good, having worked with both Qt and Java, I have preference for Qt.

 

Qt also runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Android and other platforms.

As long as you stick within the Qt-only world and don't make platform specific calls, the code will run everywhere. You just need to recompile it for that platform and Qt is C++ so it is extremely fast.

There is one drawback however, some of its dependencies can be quite large depending on the type of distribution and compilation you use.

For instance, (unless I did something wrong) what I found is that in order to run a program, even as small as 100KB EXE, the whole package may weigh about 40MB (unzipped) *but* if you recompile the distribution from source and exclude webkit and other stuff you don't need, the dependences dramatically decrease to about 17MB unzipped and when zipped even more.

 

Update: This was the case with Qt 5.2 for me at least.

[Bhushan]

I dont know any language properly though i am linux system admin....

please suggest me simple language to start learning

Thank You

[Vortex]

Hi Bhushan,

 

Simplicity is a relative term. Why not to start with the C language as your platform is Linux ?

[erwan.l]

I dont know any language properly though i am linux system admin....

please suggest me simple language to start learning

Thank You

 

IMHO, I would start with shell bash script then would move on with C.

But others could also suggest perl or python which are quite popular (especialy around raspberry these days).

 

Myself being a pascal maniac, I stick to pascal when I have to develop something on linux but I would not recommend that thus.

[homes32]

I dont know any language properly though i am linux system admin....

please suggest me simple language to start learning

Thank You

 

I'm with erwan.l

As you are a linux admin bash (shell script) is going to be your best friend. Once you are comfortable there look at python and C.

If you want to learn more on the Windows side start with something like AutoIT and then C/C++

 

Great discussions guys!

[Bhushan]

ThnX Vortex, Erwan & Homes for suggestion .... soon i will start from bash script

[Icecube]

ThnX Vortex, Erwan & Homes for suggestion .... soon i will start from bash script

 

This is a great site for learning bash (At least I used it a lot):

  http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

I like especially the "Appendix B. Reference Cards" page:

  http://tldp.org/LDP/...l/refcards.html

[Bhushan]

thnX IceCube