Programming languages: where to begin?
There's been tremendous evolution in the programming language space, as new coding philosophies and paradigms change over time to address old problems or new visions. But how to decide where to invest your time and energy? Apple's new Swift language is the newborn on the block, and iOS developers seem to be impressed. Infoworld recommends nine languages that make writing Javascript a joy, if that's possible (coffeescript, gorillascript, typescript, and others). Venturebeat recommends you start with Javascript before moving onto something like Python or Ruby. The Google engineer who invented Dart, Gilad Bracha, deplores the dearth of viable programming languages that would allow the Web to compete with native code. CIO also recommends Javascript, but also suggests budding web designers also look into Opa, Scala, and Erlang, among others.
Or should you just throw in the towel, and have a little fun with something totally useless like Brainfuck, or the Arnold Schwartzenegger programming language?
What had spurred me (besides my fathers taunt that ADA would make me pull my hair out) was first, an article i read* from an informal study of programming students progression as observed by the teachers - they found that students who learned ADA first rather than later, had a higher likelihood of succeeding in subsequent classes, and better practices and understanding of what they are writing. Second, the realization that ADA is still widely used in critical applications; isn't going anywhere; and its always good to know the odd language or skill, that nobody else is 'interested' in (ie: not cool)
Out of practicality, I am back to learning C for the time being, but next on my list-to-learn*i'll try to find the article, i hope i didn't butcher the jist too much