I recently had a former CMPT 165 student email me and ask essentially if Python was the best language to learn [first] from a practical\/employment standpoint. This was my response, that I think was good and would like to expand on here:<\/p>\n
Certainly the traditional view of the world is “C\/C++\/Java for big projects or where speed matters; higher-level languages like Python\/Perl\/VB for smaller projects or automation.” Certainly many of my colleagues continue to see the world in this way.<\/p>\n
The programming language world has changed in some subtle ways in the last few years and I don’t think that attitude is really valid anymore. If I was starting a big project today (like writing a word processor or something), I would probably start with Python (or something similar): it’s easier to write and get things done and it’s possible to bridge to code in Java or C if you need to.<\/p>\n
If I had to honestly summarize the world today, I’d say “C++\/Java\/C# for big companies who want to make a ‘safe’ choice of programming language; Python\/Ruby\/JavaScript\/Scala\/etc on smaller projects where the developers make the choice and want to get things done and enjoy their lives.”<\/p>\n
A few footnotes on that: (1) the result is there are probably more Java\/C# jobs in the world than other languages; (2) the Python\/Ruby\/Javascript jobs tend to be in smaller companies and are probably more fun; (3) after you learn to program, learning a new language isn’t nearly as big a deal as learning your first–most of the concepts are always the same.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By “the programming language world has changed in some subtle ways”, I mean mostly:<\/p>\n
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- Languages we always though of as “slow” have been made shockingly fast by just-in-time compilers like V8<\/a> and PyPy<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Mixing languages in a project (e.g. calling C from Python, or using one language’s standard library from another) seems, to me at least, to be an easier and more mainstream thing to do if you need to.<\/li>\n
- Frameworks\/libraries are used much more heavily. If you spend 90% of your time calling some GUI library, the speed of your code doesn’t matter much: the speed of the GUI library is what matters. (And, who’s to say the library is written in the same language you’re writing? See 2.)<\/li>\n
- C isn’t the “fast” language anymore. That’s probably more controversial, but basically, C is really good at single-threaded performance, but multithreading and heterogeneous processor environments are a real pain. Today’s reality is that new processors aren’t improving single-treaded speed by very much. Those who want their computation to happen really, really fast seem to be increasingly reaching for computation-specialized tools like Go<\/a>, OpenCL<\/a>, or Hadoop<\/a>. It turns out that the explicitness of C starts to become a burden if you have to smack the mutexes around by hand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
My assertion that “C++\/Java\/C# for big companies who want to make a ‘safe’ choice” is really just a gut feeling. I understand and even agree with the desire for static typing in a huge project, but I honestly don’t think that’s why companies choose Java or C#. Companies choose these language because they are enterprisey: they are the kind of language that checks all of the CIO’s boxes and have comforting professional certifications that the HR department can look for.<\/p>\n