Programming Language Question

[nkormanik]

Often asked, of course.  Just wondering what Skwire uses in addition to Auto Hotkey.  Do one of the big languages stand out?

Recently watched a video where a programmer said, "Today all the languages can achieve nearly anything.  No one is inherently better than another."

Thanks,
Nicholas Kormanik

[mouser]

Here are some big questions you have to ask yourself when thinking about what language to use and learn, the answers to these will greatly effect which language is best..

• Are you primarily interested in learning good concepts and habits of coding or are you more interested in writing programs that do useful things?
• What platforms are you most interested in? Windows, Mac, Ipad, Android Phone, Linux, micro controllers?
• How important is GUI to you?  Are you interested in making desktop heavy UI applications, or academic console based applications, or games?
• Are you interested in getting a lot done quickly, or writing code that is super clean and organized but may take orders of magnitude longer to write?

[x16wda]

Those are excellent questions Mouser! Anyone want to take a stab at a chart with those as column headers, and A-F (or 1-5) rankings for languages with which they are familiar?

[wraith808]

I think you forgot one. Are you interested in making a living with your skills?

[mouser]

Are you interested in making a living with your skills?

Yes, very good.

[skwire]

Just wondering what Skwire uses in addition to Auto Hotkey.

At a job, many moons ago, I wrote in C and Java.  However, all the applications on my website are all AutoHotkey-based.

[nkormanik]

Thanks for the insights, folks.

In my case, I work alone, and come across challenges trying to accomplish this or that.  I search the Internet to see if someone else has solved the conundrum, or I visit Donationcoder.com and spell out the objective, which is generally met with a mini-program solution, surprisingly quickly.

But I feel I should be solving these myself.

Sort of raises a question, though:  Seems zillions of small programs out there, more all the time, to accomplish nearly anything.  Does one really have to learn to do it oneself?

[x16wda]

Does one really have to learn to do it oneself?

Depends on how much fun you want to have! 

[nkormanik]

Well, let's assume one wants to simply get the job done as expeditiously and efficiently as possible, with the best today's programming languages can offer.

Would be great if there were one universal programming language that could pretty much do all things.

[wraith808]

Well, let's assume one wants to simply get the job done as expeditiously and efficiently as possible, with the best today's programming languages can offer.

Would be great if there were one universal programming language that could pretty much do all things.

I think that's the beauty of programming/scripting language.  Each has it's own strength within it's realms, and weaknesses without.  Any language designed for all problems would end up being truly good at none of them.  Pick the best language for the job, no matter what it is, and you'll have a better time than picking second best, even if it might get the job done.  In the end, they're all tools, and just as a carpenter doesn't limit himself to one tool out of his toolbox for all tasks, neither should programming languages be viewed in such a way.

As far as your question above as to whether you have to learn and feeling that you should be solving the problem yourself- if that's your desire, learn.  But you don't have to.  Most don't.

[p3lb0x]

As Mouser said, there's a lot of things you have to consider before picking a starting language.

I'd recommend C#, it has very clean syntax, you can do a lot of things fast, has great documentation (with regards to the .net framework, for the most part anyway), great guides on how to tackle common tasks and it does all this decently quickly. However, you're pretty much tied to windows since most of the .net framework isn't crossplatform. Otherwise I'd look at some of the prominent scripting languages like Python. While Python definitely has its own quirks and problems, there are a shitton of UI frameworks (Something that definitely speeds up the presentation side of things) out there and libraries to take advantage of.

[nkormanik]

Some above have said, "Pick the best language for a particular job."

Well, let's assume one instead decides to start studying C#, the current top-ranked programming language in the world.

Can C# be used in place of AutoHotkey to make more or less the same programs that Skwire puts out?

What limitations does C# have, that will frustrate a new programmer?

(assume Windows environment)

[p3lb0x]

Unfortunately I am not well versed enough in AutoHotkey to give you a good answer, but from what I've seen... probably? But it would take a lot more code to accomplish what AutoHotkey can accomplish with a page of script using C#. From what I gather AutoHotkey has a pretty narrow scope (Feel free to correct me here, AutoHotkey gods) of what it sets out to accomplish, and does this extremely well. That scope entailing automation of tasks and small simple UIs to facilitate this, an example being renaming files or doing specific tasks at different times. Whereas C# is designed to be a fairly high level multi paradigm language that you can use for pretty much anything.

[anandcoral]

Unfortunately I am not well versed enough in AutoHotkey to give you a good answer, but from what I've seen... probably? But it would take a lot more code to accomplish what AutoHotkey can accomplish with a page of script using C#. From what I gather AutoHotkey has a pretty narrow scope (Feel free to correct me here, AutoHotkey gods) of what it sets out to accomplish, and does this extremely well. That scope entailing automation of tasks and small simple UIs to facilitate this, an example being renaming files or doing specific tasks at different times. Whereas C# is designed to be a fairly high level multi paradigm language that you can use for pretty much anything.

Agree fully.

I develop nearly all my apps for DC NANY in Autohotkey. I even use AutoIt3 for some of my required apps, not released for public. My main language is Xbase++ to develop all my accounting and inventory related apps for my clients. I further use Harbour, HMG MiniGUI, Delphi, Js etc. to accomplish some small but required function in small apps.

In short, you need different pans in your kitchen, to cook your required meal. Start by making sandwich and tea for yourself. You will need fewer pans. Slowly you will learn to cook full meal.

Regards,

Anand

[wraith808]

Agree with both answers above. Hammers and Screwdrivers and such.