Slant community chat on DiscourseEither for hobby or as a real opportunity to find a job, with countless resources on the internet (most of them free), learning a new programming language has never been as easy as it is today. But even with the overwhelming information that’s out there, choosing a programming language to learn can be a daunting task. Especially if it’s the first language that someone is learning.
A good programming language to start with should be one that teaches best practices and common paradigms and designs that can be found on all other languages. Some people may prefer a language that has a clearer syntax, like Python for example others may prefer a language that is more verbose but that teaches a lot on what is happening “under the hood” like C. Languages that have an easier syntax especially have a lot more tutorials and resources to learn for beginners than languages that may be a little more complex as syntax goes.
One should also keep in mind that a programming language is just a tool to be used, and as such every language out there has it’s strengths and weaknesses and is better suited at a certain thing rather than others. So for example, JavaScript is essential to anyone who wants to learn web development, C++ is widely used by game developers worldwide, Java is needed for Android development and so on. So another thing to keep in mind is the area where you want to focus and that also should influence your choice.
| 63 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Site | Current stable version | GZipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Python· · · | 418 | 54 | https://www.python.org/ | 3.6.1 | 22.5MB |
| #2 Smalltalk· · · | 44 | 14 | http://pharo.org/ squeak.org cincomsmalltalk.com cuis-smalltalk.org | 6.1 | 38MB |
| #3 Elm· · · | 19 | 8 | http://elm-lang.org/ | 0.18 | 23.2 kB |
| #4 Scheme· · · | 63 | 33 | – | – | – |
| #5 JavaScript· · · | 188 | 107 | – | – | – |
| #6 C· · · | 164 | 81 | – | – | – |
Pro Easy to get started
On top of the wealth of tutorials and documentation, and the fact that it ships with a sizeable standard library, Python also ships with both an IDE (Integrated Development Environment: A graphical environment for editing running and debugging your code); as well as a text-based live interpreter....
Pro Clear syntax
Python's syntax is very clear and readable, making it excellent for beginners. The lack of extra characters like semicolons and curly braces reduces distractions, letting beginners focus on the meaning of the code. Significant whitespace also means that all code is properly and consistently ind...
Pro Lots of tutorials
Python's popularity and beginner friendliness has led to a wealth of tutorials and example code on the internet. This means that when beginners have questions, they're very likely to be able to find an answer on their own just by searching. This is an advantage over some languages that are...
Con Abstraction to the point of hinderance
Python is abstracted far enough that if it's your first language, it will be harder to pick up lower level languages later versus going the other direction.
Con Language fragmentation
A large subset of the Python community still uses / relies upon Python 2, which is considered a legacy implementation by the Python authors. Some libraries still have varying degrees of support depending on which version of Python you use. There are syntactical differences between the versions.
Con Not good for mobile development
You can use frameworks like Kivy, but if your ultimate goal is to write mobile apps Python may not be the best first choice.
Pro Environment of live objects
You can modify the system as it's running. You're "swimming with the fish", instead of probing a black box by remote control.
Con Not common
Smalltalk and its implementations are no longer popular languages to use. Available jobs are scarce (but do exist), and online communities are relatively small. There is little to no modern books or resources made for the language, although older, very good books do exist.
Con Virtual machine in its own isolated world
Smalltalk wants to be the whole OS. While this has tremendous advantages internally, interacting with the world outside the VM is not so easy.
Pro Powerful tooling
Tooling assists new developers with language semantics and getting code built
Pro Understandable error messages and other feedback
Error messages are carefully formatted with color highlighting and indicators. Errors also come with hints on how to fix problems.
Con Limited amount of libraries
Third party library documentation is hosted on package.elm-lang.org, where you can find what's around. Compared to other languages, on the web or otherwise, there aren't very many libraries. Again a young language problem.
Pro Great, well known textbooks
There is a set of very strong textbooks introducing CS and programming using Scheme. These books are available for free online. The most famous example--and one of the most famous CS books full stop--is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs usually known as SICP. This book introduces f...
Pro Simple syntax
Scheme syntax is extremely regular and easy to pick up. A formal specification of the syntax fits onto just a few pages; it can be introduced informally in a paragraph or two. Students are not distracted by remembering how to write if statements or loops or even operator precedence because every s...
Con Little Market Search
There are little to none jobs searching for a Scheme programmer. The ones that exist are more related to Research in Maths or Artificial Intelligence.
Con Fragmented ecosystem
Scheme is an IEEE standard, not an implementation. Unfortunately, the standard is too minimal and practical implementations have diverged--they had to expand on the standard to get anything done, but did so in incompatible ways. The later de facto standard R6RS tried to correct this, but lost Sch...
Pro No installation required
If you run a web browser you already have JavaScript installed and can get started right away. Modern browsers such as Chrome also have very powerful programming consoles built into them. Aside from the browser console, you can also use online Javascript playgrounds such as JS Bin and JS Fiddle....
Pro Required for web development
If you are looking to create web projects, you will have to learn Javascript in order to develop the client side code. If you learn the foundations of programming in JavaScript you can reapply that education later in building web applications.
Con Many errors pass silently
JavaScript looks for every possible way to treat the code you write as runnable and is very reluctant to point out likely errors. For example, you have call a function with too many arguments, the extra arguments are simply discarded.
Con Complex
JavaScript has a long litany of warts and gotchas. JavaScript will bite you if you're just a wee bit careless. You have to exercise a great deal of caution and awareness. You either have to know the entire 545-page ES6 spec to avoid them all, or use a linter to help restrict you from using the...
Pro Understanding of computers
Learning C forces you to grapple with the low-level workings of your computer (memory management, pointers, etc.) in ways that the other languages abstract away. Without an understanding of these low-level aspects of computer programming you will be limited if you try to develop an application that...
Pro Industry standard
C is the industry standard programming language, moreover, it is the most popular programming language to use. C is the language used for most Windows, UNIX and Mac operating systems.
Con C will require you to learn concepts too advanced for most beginners
While other programmers will learn algorithms and structures and will do magic tricks and awesome applications, you will learn trash info that you should know maybe after 5-7 years experience in software development, not earlier. It's like going the first time as a seven year old kid to first s...
Con Languages is full of corner cases and undefined behaviors
Undefined behavior in a program can cause unexpected results, making it hard to debug. With UB, program behavior may vary wildly depending on optimization settings. There are many cases that invoke UB, such as signed overflow, invalid dereferences, large integer shifts, uninitialized variables, et...
Pro Clean syntax
Easier to both read and write.
Con Needs previous programming experience
The benefits of the language might not be obvious for a first learner.
Con Not that popular
This language doesn't have the widespread support and communities that other languages such as Java, C/C#/C++, JavaScript, etc. have.
Pro Immutable values
The immutable values make it perfect for working with concurrency
Pro Multiparadigm
Scala supports both Functional and Object Oriented styles of programming. Beginners can learn both paradigms without having to learn a new language, and experts can switch between the two according to what best suits their needs at the time.
Con Can be intimidating for beginners
Scala is an industrial language. It brings functional programming to the JVM, but not with a "start small and grow the language" perspective, but rather a very powerful language for professional programmers.
Con Static type system inherits cruft from Java
The type system is too complicated yet still less powerful than Haskell's.
Pro Terse
Haskell is a very terse language, particularly due to its type inference. This means there's nothing to distract from the intent of the code, making it very readable. This is in sharp contrast to languages like Java, where skimming code requires learning which details can be ignored. Haskell...
Pro Referentially Transparent
Haskell's Purely Functional approach means that code is referentially transparent. This means that to read a function, one only needs to know its arguments. Code works the same way that expressions work in Algebra class. There's no need to read the whole source code to determine if there...
Con Difficult learning curve
Haskell lends itself well to powerful abstractions - the result is that even basic, commonly used libraries, while easy to use, are implemened using a vocabularly that requires a lot of backround in abstract mathematics to understand. Even a concept as simple as "combine A and B" is ofte...
Pro Straightforward and simple
Lua's syntax is very simple and straightforward. Because of this, you can quickly write code without much fuss, and is part of the reason why it's so popular as an embedded scripting language in many video games.
Pro Embeddable
Many different game engines (e.g. Elder Scrolls series, ToME) use Lua for scripting, and it's runtime is designed for embedded use.
Con Prototype-based inheritance
Lua features a prototye-based inheritance model. While this is also used by Javascript, it's not used by many other mainstream languages, and so some of the concepts learned while learning Lua won't be very applicable to other languages.
Con 1-indexed Arrays
Defying conventions from most other programming languages, Lua uses arrays that start at 1, rather than 0. While seemingly beginner friendly, this can complicate some logic, and sets beginners up for confusion when looking at code from other languages.
Pro Visual
Code is represented as visual building blocks that makes it easy to understand how a program is put together.
Pro Easy to learn
Scratch is designed to teach computational thinking rather than focus on specific syntax. It was designed specifically to be easy to learn for anyone over the age of 8.
Con Won't get you a job
Scratch is not a language used in the workplace. Instead it teaches computational thinking, helping to create a foundation to aid in learning other languages.
Con Does not teach you programming
Learning Scratch might help you if you have high difficulty with logical thinking. However, starting with a proper programming language, especially an easy one, will give you the benefits of starting with something like Scratch and everything else.
Pro Awesome IDE for Windows
On Windows, Visual Studio is the recommended C# IDE. It provides a very flexible GUI that you can rearrange the way you want and many useful features such as refactorings (rename a variable, extract some code into a method, ...) and code formatting (you can pick exactly how you want the code to be...
Pro Incredibly Well-Engineered Language
Where other languages invoke the feeling of being a product of organic growth over time, C# just feels like an incredibly well-designed language where everything has its purpose and almost nothing is non-essential.
Con Dependecy on IDE
Most people learn and depend on VisualStudio to write C#. The result is people learn how to use an IDE and not the concepts or fundamentals of good programming. This isn't necessarily a knock on the language itself, but it is frustratingly difficult to do things in C# when not using VS.
Pro Catch errors at compile-time
Since Rust is statically typed, you can catch multiple errors during compile time. This is extremely helpful with debugging, especially compared with dynamically typed languages that may fail silently during runtime.
Pro Friendly community & Code of Conduct
The Rust Code of Conduct promotes a safe, friendly, and welcoming environment for newcomers to Rust and programming in general.
Con Long learning curve
Pretty strict and hard to adapt for beginners.
Con Advanced concepts are not beginner-friendly
To program even basic things in Rust, a beginner learning their first language has to develop an understanding of references, pointers, ownership, borrowing, lifetimes, scope. This is on top of many other programming concepts. In Rust, there is not much that can be written in a naive manner.
Pro Exceptionally simple and scalable multithreaded and concurrent programming.
Simply prepend a function with go to execute it concurrently. Utilizes channels for communication between goroutines which aids to prevent races and makes synchronizing threads effortless. The maximum number of threads to use may be defined at compile time, even if that is limiting goroutines to r...
Pro Simplified C-like syntax that is as easy to read and write as Python
The language is designed in a manner that seems logical. Syntax is simplified to reduce burden on the programmer and compiler developers.
Con Designed to make the programmer expendable
Go was designed for large team projects where many contributors may be incompetent. That Go can still get things done under these conditions is a testament to its utility in this niche. Go's infamously weak abstraction power is thus a feature, not a bug, meant to prevent your teammates from doi...
Con Hard to abstract even the simplest notions
Go is famously regarded as very simple. However, this simplicity becomes problematic in time. Programmers who use Go find themselves over and over again writing the same thing from a very low point of view. Domains not already served by libraries that are easy to glue are very difficult to get int...
Pro Clean syntax
Ruby has a very clean syntax that makes code easier to both read and write than more traditional Object Oriented languages, such as Java. For beginning programmers, this means the focus is on the meaning of the program, where it should be, rather than trying to figure out the meaning of obscure cha...
Pro A large ecosystem of tools & libraries
Ruby has a large ecosystem of tools and libraries for just about every use. Such as ORMs (Active Record, DatabMapper), Web Application Frameworks(Rails, Sinatra, Volt), Virtualization Orchestration(docker-api, drelict), CLI tools(Thor, Commando), GUI Frameworks(Shoes, FXRuby) and the list goes on.
Con Meta-programming causes confusion for new developers
The ability for libraries to open classes and augment them leads to confusion for new developers since it is not clear who injected the functionality into some standard class. In other words, if two modules decide to modify the same function on the same class can introduce a number of issues. Main...
Con Its ecosystem is limited outside of web development
If you're looking to host, generate, manipulate or secure a website, Ruby is your language. There's also some great support here for infrastructure as code work via Chef. However, it just doesn't have the depth and breadth that Python does. Things like native UI development, high per...
Pro Supported by Google as an official first-class language on Android
Google are backing Kotlin as a direct alternative to Java and Android's answer to Swift. With Android Studio being based on JetBrain's IDEA platform it already has excellent Kotlin support, and Google's vested interests will ensure continued growth in users and support.
Pro Good IDE and build tool support
JetBrains provide tightly integrated Kotlin support in IntelliJ IDEA CE and derivatives like Android Studio, and an Eclipse Plugin. Build tool plugins exist for Maven, Gradle and Ant
Con User community still quite small
The availability of online support is still quite limited due to the young age of the language, and some of what does show up in searches refers to pre 1.0 release syntax.
Pro Understanding of basics
Because of the verbosity and easy syntax, Pascal language is relatively easier to be learned and understood, even for someone who has no programming knowledge. It's said that Pascal code —if written well— is like reading pseudo code.
Pro Clear syntax
procedure test(); begin DoSomething(); end;
Con Niche language
Most use of this language will be found in jobs supporting legacy code. It will be hard to find things to do with this language outside of that niche.
Pro Simplicity as a pillar of culture.
Simplicity is one of the pillars on which Clojure is built. Clojure tries to solve many problems in software development as simply as possible. Instead of building complex interfaces, objects or factories, it uses immutability and simple data structures.
Pro Designed for concurrency
Since Clojure is designed for concurrency, it offers things like Software Transaction Memory, functional programming without side-effects and immutable data structures right out of the box. This means that the development team can focus their energies on developing features instead of concurrency...
Con Confusing error messages
Clojure's error messages more often than not are very confusing. They usually involve stack traces that do not thoroughly explain where the error was caused or what caused it.
Con Depends on Java for basic tasks
Clojure chose not to re-implement all of Java's standard library, and depends on it for some basic tasks. This means beginners have to learn some Java too, because they must interoperate with it to make Clojure work.
Pro Fantastic IDEs
Because Java is statically typed, integrated development environments (IDEs) for Java can provide a lot more feedback on errors you will encounter. Java IDEs can give you specific errors in the location where they occur without having to run the code every time. This makes is faster to debug and le...
Pro Most commonly used language in industry
Java is one of the most popular languages in industry, consistently ranking either first, or occasionally second (behind C or Javascript) in terms of usage. Polls (see sources below) show it to be consistently in high demand, particularly as measured by job board postings. This makes Java a great t...
Con Lacks modern features
Java evolves very slowly - lambda expressions weren't available until Java 8 (which is not available on Android), and despite getters/setters being a long-time convention, the language still doesn't have native accessor syntax (a la C#'s properties). It's unlikely newer, popular fea...
Con Worst-of-both-worlds static type system
It's just barely good enough to make decent IDEs, but it's not at the level of Idris or even Haskell. For large enterprise projects, the IDE support is important, but the static typing in Java just gets in the way for the smaller projects beginners would start with. Python is duck typed a...
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