One Language to Rule Them All

You want to learn programming? You want to write complex algorithms and parse data to a database? But you don't know what language you should start with. JavaScript seems everywhere. Python is the most popular. C# is cross platform. So many choices and you don't want to pick the wrong one and be stuck with a bad language. This is some of the few worries new developers have.

You are in luck I'm going to help you figure it out. I had the same question when I started. After sometime I realized something that I want to share. I will try to help you figure out the best for you and also let you know what you really need to be focusing on.

First thing first. It does not matter. Let me repeat that. It does NOT matter. In the general since most programming languages are the same. A string in C# is a string in JavaScript. If , while, and forEach, yup pretty much the same. For example take this If statement in JavaScript and Python.

//JavaScript
if(javascript == true){
    console.log("JavaScript")
 }
 
 #Python
 if python = True:
     print("Python")

As you can see if you know one you can figure out the other. Most languages use the same data types. The main different will be syntax used. Luckily that's where documentation comes in handy. Learning to read the Docs if a very valuable skill to have and knowing the terminology for things such as (Concatenation , "adding to strings") makes this really easy.

So if programming languages are mostly the same why do we have so many different ones and what should you study instead? Well they are all similar but they do have some key differences. Take JavaScript for example. It needs a browser to run. Knowing the differences will help you pick the one that is write for you. Are you wanting to build Software that the user runs on the computer? C# is a good choice for that. Do you want to build a WebSite or other web base app? JavaScript is up to the task. Last but far from least, Python. The Python is great for automating task and scripting. Now with that said. C# can do web, so can python. The main reason I follow that structure is ease of learning and finding help. If you are searching for a way to build a website you will find endless resource for JavaScript, not so much for Python. So I keep them split into the main use cases.

Now on to the important stuff. No matter what you pick. The program structure will be the same. That should be your main focus. Should I use a variable or hard code this, should I write functions that handle more then one thing, what is Inheritance. This is the foundation for clean pragmatic code that is scalable and reusable. Other developers should be able to look at you code and understand what it's doing. Even if you don't know how to use the ?: operator in C#. As long as your code is clean and well structured other developers will have no problem understanding you code.

I hope this helps. I struggled with the same problem when I started. I didn't realize any of this until my second project. I couldn't find any info online that was in C#, everything was JavaScript. So I switched to JavaScript and had all the help I could need. I have a few books I highly recommend. First would have to be The Pragmatic Programmer second edition. This will lay the foundation to build on. Second is Clean Code. This one really helps learn reusable code, and best practices. Designing Data-Intensive Applications will give you a great understanding of databases and how to pick and properly manage the database. Which is extremally important since most applications will have a database of some kind. Last but not least if a controversial one but help understand format and structure. That is Design Patterns. That will help you understand common patterns and ways to solve common problems. Audio books are also a great option for on the go. I have a hour commute to work everyday and having audio books to listen to make great use of that time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I included links to the books mentioned in this post and a link for Audible and Kindle both I have used for years now. Disclosure They are affiliate links, I do get a small commission if you use them to purchase the books. It doesn't change the price of the books just helps keep the blog going.