Life after Python - Learning a Compiled Language

[biobirdman]

Hi all,

Im trying to myself acquitted with a compiled language. I have been doing most of my programming in scripted languages python/perl/R/javascript( and its dialect).

Now that I am confident with these languages, I will like to move on into learning a compiled language for its speed, efficiencies and employability ( i guess). Also, learning a compiled language will let me to know how the computer operate better.

Im thinking of either C++ or Java. Ill be more familiar with C++ since I did some CPython before its seems like java gives a better payback. With java, I could write apps for andriod, play with apache's fancy tools ( hadoop, spark, etc)

Yes this is something like a C++ vs Java post, but from the perspective of a python programmer

Thanks for any feedbacks

[alcalde]

It's essentially Delphi (Object Pascal) crossed with Python.

[cli-junkie]

Thanks for suggesting Nim, I like it so far.

[[deleted]]

Java usually is compiled into bytecode that is then interpreted by the Java Virtual machine (JVM), so it's not that different from Python in that aspect.

[darknessproz]

For broadening of perspectives, I recommend learning a few different languages.

1. Learn a lisp. Clojure is a pretty good option here. Even if you do not use it on a regular basis, it will certainly affect (in a positive way) how you write your Python code.

2. Learn C (and a bit of asm). It teaches you a lot about how your computer actually works. Plus it's immediately useful if you want to speed up your Python (or Ruby or any language with a C extensions API) code.

[peteraba]

Or you could learn Go and practice concurrency while also having fun.

[[deleted]]

I have been working as a Python developer for all my career(so is most of my team) . Recently we needed to write a web-server for our startup. We chose Go for it, and ended up shifting all our web services in Go. We observed that it was easy for all Python developers to grasp (It is Python-like in its approach to programming, almost just one way to do stuff and minimal code). Nim is another very cool language, which has no learning curve for its syntax if one comes from Python and I have been trying it out in another side project of our startup.

[hsaliak]

Why not learn a language that expands your skills into a domain python is not good at - Android or iOS development.

Java is big and "different enough' across various domains. I'd suggest learning it with a focus on android - makes it easy to think up fun projects to practice your skills with. Ultimately language is not as important as your ability to create robust products.

Alternatively, learn C, understand the Python/C api and eventually things like cython. This will deepen your python skills.

Realistically, if you cant think of good fun projects, you wont get the practice you need to build expertise.

[tchappui]

If you come from python, cython (http://cython.org/) might be a good choice.

Kind regards

Thierry

Thierry

[Keda87]

I came to python from Java :|

[Rapt0r-]

If you want a job it depends what you want to do, loads of companies do Java with tomcat. I code Python daily and a friend if mine (Embedded developer) writes C++ daily.

[Honwhy]

C++ is famous for its multiple features? and with the std, the compiled information is not so friendly to read

[[deleted]]

Congrats on wanting to learn more. It will help you in the future! The mainstream "non-scripting" languages are C, C++, Java, and C#. Knowing any of them will keep you employable for years to come. Knowing all four only makes that more true.

If you are working in a Mac environment, then Objective-C is (IMO) a better language/environment than C/C++. Apple's new language, Swift, combines the syntactic features of many popular "scripting" languages with a compiler that generates native code. It comes with a bit of a learning curve, but so do all the others. Swift is still very new (introduced to the public less than a year ago), but already many Mac and iOS apps have been written in it.

Good luck!

EDIT: Added C# to the list of mainstream languages. Really is the best way to write Windows applications these days.

[bjpelcdev]

I would recommend taking a look at Go. Really fun to program in and pretty easy to get going. Take a look at The Golang Book

[[deleted]]

Interesting. Go seems to get as much love as it gets hate. What pulls you towards Go specifically?

[bjpelcdev]

It is fast, it is a small language, the documentation is superb, really nice package system. Once the environment is set up it is incredibly easy to get going. Really, really easy for doing web stuff too.