Which programming language should I learn first?(pixelstech.net)
pixelstech.net
Which programming language should I learn first?
http://pixelstech.net/article/index.php?id=1335686357
6 comments
Well, there's one bit about SQL which is depressing, and that's the way that the language has been undone by its own fragmentation.
Each dialect of SQL is different enough from all the others that the lowest common denominator - the version that you can really call 'SQL' and not 'PL/SQL', 'T-SQL' or whatever - is really, really low. So most the tutorials on 'SQL' out there present the language as a dumb insertion and retrieval mechanism rather than the powerful declarative programming language for query and analytics that it really is. Meaning most programmers out there really don't know what they're losing when they choose to go with the naive approach to relational databases that ORMs encourage.
I got led down that path first. And I spent a lot of time struggling with the ORM. And then somebody or something finally convinced me to take the time to learn SQL. Not that least-common-denominator crap - real SQL, the native dialect of my DBMS and all of its ins and outs.
And soon after, once I had properly encapsulated the database with well-written stored procedures and all that, I dumped the ORM, because it had become the stone in the soup. And everything got so much better, so much more performant, so much easier to maintain, so quickly. And I remembered all the struggling from before, and saw that none of it had to happen. And I mourned for all the wasted time and gray hairs.
I learned SQL, and it made me feel depressed.
Each dialect of SQL is different enough from all the others that the lowest common denominator - the version that you can really call 'SQL' and not 'PL/SQL', 'T-SQL' or whatever - is really, really low. So most the tutorials on 'SQL' out there present the language as a dumb insertion and retrieval mechanism rather than the powerful declarative programming language for query and analytics that it really is. Meaning most programmers out there really don't know what they're losing when they choose to go with the naive approach to relational databases that ORMs encourage.
I got led down that path first. And I spent a lot of time struggling with the ORM. And then somebody or something finally convinced me to take the time to learn SQL. Not that least-common-denominator crap - real SQL, the native dialect of my DBMS and all of its ins and outs.
And soon after, once I had properly encapsulated the database with well-written stored procedures and all that, I dumped the ORM, because it had become the stone in the soup. And everything got so much better, so much more performant, so much easier to maintain, so quickly. And I remembered all the struggling from before, and saw that none of it had to happen. And I mourned for all the wasted time and gray hairs.
I learned SQL, and it made me feel depressed.
FRACTRAN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN
I started at PHP and still learning.
> To mingle with programmers who call themselves “rockstars”: Ruby.
Oh fuck off. I'm really getting tired of the Ruby backlash. It is a FINE language, better than most.
Oh fuck off. I'm really getting tired of the Ruby backlash. It is a FINE language, better than most.
Cute.
I don't think the Cute programming language is ready to be used as a first time target for developers yet. Try scheme.
What is Cute programming language?
It's a Cool variant designed specifically to encourage female students into Software Engineering and/or Computer Science.
Serious?
SQL isn't a programming language you would learn to program general purpose programs with. It's a language to manage relational data in a database.
It's not a depressing language. Depressing, is watching a programmer fight with procedural ORM when doing anything remotely complicated with data in a relational database.