Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Are there reasons to learn how to program in which programming languages to find a job?

Quantum Robin

Quantum Robin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2019
4
0
I want to learn how to program in programming languages that has reasons to find a job, I do not want to learn how to program in programming languages that has weak market or that has no reason to find a job.

Are there reasons to learn how to program in which programming languages to find a job?
 
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,425
5,538
Horsens, Denmark
Almost any language can land you a job.

Java, JavaScript (especially learning frameworks like node, vue, etc.), C++, Swift, C#

I recommend looking into one of those.
Swift restricts you to jobs with Apple development, but will also be the preferred language for new Apple software projects. C# is very much Microsoft's favourite horse. C++ is a brillant, fairly low-level language often used in game development and high performance native software, with enough abstraction to be nicer to work with than C.
JavaScript is huge for web development and is only getting bigger. Node.js and similar frameworks also allows JavaScript to be used for server-side applications, whereas it's normally client-side only.

Java is sort of the big-dog of Object-Oriented programming. Most college courses on programming start with Java, my own included. Thus I can recommend the book Objects First With Java. It's a fairly easy language to learn, and the basis for Android applications (at least most of them). It's also fairly widely used in server infrastructure. However, it's not a very low-level language, and it runs on a virtual machine so isn't always super effecient and doesn't necessarily integrate all that well with native system behaviour. But it also creates very portable code that can easily be run on all sorts of machines from Windows to Mac, Linux, Android, and so forth.

If you have any further questions I'm ready to help with anything. I study computer science at university so that's my qualifications :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: max2, motulist and AngerDanger
rafark

rafark

macrumors 68000
Sep 1, 2017
1,738
2,926
Absolutely. You should target a language that is on demand. What do you want to build? For web servers PHP is the king and has a solid class-based object oriented support. Lots of demand, easy to learn, lower paying than other languages, though.

JavaScript... if you do anything web related you'll end up using it one way or another. however, the language is basically a Frankenstein and it's very frustrating to use. I write JS daily and it's not nice. Stay away from it if you can. I personally hate it.

With Python you can create server systems (an alt to PHP) and also desktop apps. A solid lang as well.

Mobile: Swift, java.

c# for Windows programs.

Lower level, higher paying: C, C++.
 
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,425
5,538
Horsens, Denmark
rafark said:
Absolutely. You should target a language that is on demand. What do you want to build? For web servers PHP is the king and has a solid class-based object oriented support. Lots of demand, easy to learn, lower paying than other languages, though.

JavaScript... if you do anything web related you'll end up using it one way or another. however, the language is basically a Frankenstein and it's very frustrating to use. I write JS daily and it's not nice. Stay away from it if you can. I personally hate it.

With Python you can create server systems (an alt to PHP) and also desktop apps. A solid lang as well.

Mobile: Swift, java.

c# for Windows programs.

Lower level, higher paying: C, C++.
Click to expand...


Or if you want to be the best programmer in the world and earn the big kahooners, learn Cock****
Here's the github page for the language:
https://github.com/braincock/cock****
 
Quantum Robin

Quantum Robin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2019
4
0
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,425
5,538
Horsens, Denmark
Quantum Robin said:
Swift occupy which percentage of mobile market?
Click to expand...

Swift is basically all new Apple developments. Swift can also run on Linux but for now I believe only Linux and Apple's platforms, though it's open source, so a compiler could be written for other platforms.
Older projects for Apple's platforms will likely be Objective-C, and may or may not also include Swift code. It is not exclusively mobile, since Swift also is a great language for macOS and tvOS applications, and theoretically could even be built to write an operating system, but in terms of business use, it's probably mostly seen as "the iPhone language", just due to iPhone market share compared to Mac, AppleTV, Apple Watch and so on.

Quantum Robin said:
Sweet mischief.
Click to expand...

:D
 
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,425
5,538
Horsens, Denmark
rafark said:
No, but really, JS makes me cry.
Click to expand...

Seriously, try writing something in cock****, brain****. Or maybe 68K assembly.
[doublepost=1548561875][/doublepost]
jtara said:
Learning a programming language has very little to do with learning to program.

Your question is like somebody wanting to be a carpenter asking if they should learn pine, or redwood?
Click to expand...


Well, I don't think that analogy is entirely on-point, but I agree with the sentiment of what you're saying.
Learning a language and becoming a coder is a good first step to becoming a programmer though. Knowing how to speak English doesn't make you a poet, but it's hard to write English poetry if you don't know the language.
 
  • Like
Reactions: max2 and rafark
Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,988
46,455
In a coffee shop.
Quantum Robin said:
I want to learn the languages that pay the higher salaries.
Click to expand...

Hm.

Is this your sole, or primary, motivation?

Are you actually interested in programming?

And, how about you do some research - and some serious thinking - yourself, instead of expecting members of this thread to come up with answers to questions (and quests, since that is what the damned spell-check was convinced I wished to write, rather than the word "questions") you haven't fully thought through yet?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mobilehaathi, yaxomoxay and hawkeye_a
yaxomoxay

yaxomoxay

macrumors 604
Mar 3, 2010
7,411
34,213
Texas
Quantum Robin said:
I want to learn the languages that pay the higher salaries.
Click to expand...

Dude, it's not a language that pays higher salaries. It's your expertise, your level of mastery of everything that is at hands and surrounds it.
There are a few languages that are more marketable than others (Java vs. COBOL, C# vs Pascal, Swift vs Fortran) but if you think that a language (or for the matter, a TOOL in virtually any field) is the key to a higher salary you're way way way way off.

Read "So good they can't ignore you" by Cal Newport AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mobilehaathi, Quantum Robin and Scepticalscribe
Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,988
46,455
In a coffee shop.
yaxomoxay said:
Dude, it's not a language that pays higher salaries. It's your expertise, your level of mastery of everything that is at hands, and surrounds it.
There are a few languages that are more marketable than others (Java vs. COBOL, C# vs Pascal, Swift vs Fortran) but if you think that a language (or for the matter, a TOOL in virtually any field) is the key to a higher salary you're way way way way off.

Read "So good they can't ignore you" by Cal Newport AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

If I were interviewing someone for a position, and all they sought was something that paid "the higher salaries", I will confess that I would not offer that person such a position.

@yaxomoxay is quite correct that it is your level of expertise (which, in turn, comes from interest and experience) that will determine your rate of salary.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jaduff46, mobilehaathi, hawkeye_a and 1 other person
J

jtara

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2009
2,008
536
casperes1996 said:
Well, I don't think that analogy is entirely on-point
Click to expand...

Point taken. New analogy.

"It's a bit like wanting to be a carpenter, and asking, should I learn sawing, or sanding?"

Most developers will go through many programming languages in their lifetime. ALL formal Computer Science/Computer Engineering, etc. programs will expose students to MANY computer languages, so that students will get exposure to different styles of programming languages, and learn how to select the appropriate one for a particular task. MOST developers today do NOT work in a single programming language.

In rough order, the languages I've used:

- 1620 machine language (punched on cards in decimal digits)
- Fortran II
- Mix (made-up assembler language)
- PL/1
- Cobol, Algol, APL, Snobol, Lisp ("survey of programming languages" course)
- IBM/360 assembler
- Spitbol
- 8008, 4040, 8080, Z80, 6800, 6502, TMS-1000,808x assembler
- PL/m (Motorola PL/1-like language for 68xx)
- Trac
- Forth
- c
- Fortran IV
- c++
- sh/csh/ksh, etc.
- Pascal
- Java
- javascript
- CSS and HTML, which I consider declarative languages
- SQL, in various incarnations
- Perl
- Tcl
- Ruby
- objective-C
- MATLAB

I've authored one programming language and written a compiler for it. It's obscure. VSA, or "Variation Simulation Language'. It's not the same as the VSA used for chip design. It's used to describe and manipulate 3D geometries in the simulation of manufacturing variances in (usually) mechanical assemblies. It's usually hidden behind lots of layers of GUI.

I'm sure others here have similarly-long lists of programming languages they have learned and used. It is the LEAST aspect of the job of developing software!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jaduff46, Quantum Robin and casperes1996
Quantum Robin

Quantum Robin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2019
4
0
Scepticalscribe said:
Agreed.

If I were interviewing someone for a position, and all they sought was something that paid "the higher salaries", I will confess that I would not offer that person such a position.
Click to expand...

@Scepticalscribe,

It's fair to want to get the higher salaries if you is an excellent professional.

Why you confess that you would not offer that person such a position?
 
Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,988
46,455
In a coffee shop.
Quantum Robin said:
@Scepticalscribe,

It's fair to want to get the higher salaries if you is an excellent professional.

Why you confess that you would not offer that person such a position?
Click to expand...

But, I am not so sure that you will be "an excellent professional" if what is mainly driving you is the desire to make an impressive salary.

In such a context, you define yourself by how much you make rather than by what you do.

And money is not my god, though I am more than happy to spend it when I earn it.

yaxomoxay said:
"all they sought" is the key of what she said.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mobilehaathi, millerj123, hawkeye_a and 1 other person
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,425
5,538
Horsens, Denmark
Quantum Robin said:
@Scepticalscribe,

It's fair to want to get the higher salaries if you is an excellent professional.

Why you confess that you would not offer that person such a position?
Click to expand...

I mean no disrespect by this, but I also think that working on your English skills would be beneficial if you seek a tech career. Programming languages aren't the only valuable language skills
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe, jaduff46 and yaxomoxay
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom