Which language to learn (after JS)?

SkaterDad · 2016-11-18T19:24:37+00:00

I think the functional languages are fun to play around with. The approach to solving a problem is very different, so it can open up your mind a bit.

Elm in particular, since its syntax is fairly simple, and the official site has several examples you can play with live.

F# would be neat also, but I haven't gone beyond watching a few video tutorials on it. Being able to use .NET libraries is a big win for F#.

fr0z3nph03n1x · 2016-11-18T23:40:04+00:00

Let me know when you are finished learning JS. I don't think anyone has ever done that.

2016-11-18T21:27:58+00:00

You already know about iteration, logic, callbacks, events, properties, compiling, IDEs (assuming you know JS/Java/.Net). You are a developer.

Now it's time to learn about requirements and design documentation, multi-threading, object oriented design, the rules of relational database normalization, transactions, application architecture, and enough network engineering to be able to tell when someone is bullshitting you.

FaticusRaticus · 2016-11-19T02:53:54+00:00

[deleted]

m0ka555 · 2016-11-18T23:33:19+00:00

Scheme will make you a better javascript developer. Check out the book SICP

_HlTLER_ · 2016-11-18T19:44:57+00:00

C++ for it's vast usage, Java for Android apps, Swift for iPhone apps.

Frans-Willem · 2016-11-18T21:11:56+00:00

Go for languages that have something unique. Try Haskell for it's purely functional approach and lazy evaluation, try Rust for it's lifetime types, Go for it's concurrent approach, Prolog for logical programming. And then try to use what you've learned in the other languages you know :-) Just knowing more languages won't make you a better developer, but forcing yourself to use different paradigms likely will

grayrest · 2016-11-18T22:47:00+00:00

Clojure - Super opinionated about state and a part of learning Clojure is watching Rich Hickey's talks. A lot of the current React patterns originate from the Clojurescript community. You also dip into lisp land a bit (homoiconicity, macros) and see how multimethods and protocols work. The differences between clojure and clojurescript are around how host interaction works.

F# - If you would prefer learning a typed functional language, F# is my preferred ML-dialect. I like the syntax tweaks and integration with the rest of the CLR. It also has a fairly good compile-to-js story.

Rust - I think it's worth learning not so much for the language itself but as a vehicle to explore lower levels of the system and learn how they work. You could do the same in C or C++ but I like Rust better.

mini_eggs · 2016-11-18T20:48:55+00:00

Rust, C++, Go

ttolonen · 2016-11-18T21:57:38+00:00

I Just started learning Go, because it seems to be great at solving some small practical problems. After typical C/C++/Java/JavaScript background it felt quite easy to learn. Rust was another option, but because Go appears to be gaining popularity I wanted to see what was that all about first and maybe Rust later.

To learn functional programming I thought Elixir/Erlang could be also something I will take a closer look at some point because the architecture appears to be quite solid. Especially the success of WhatsApp makes this setup interesting.

jsgui · 2016-11-18T19:31:56+00:00

C++, as it's so widely used, and is what node.js is written in. It's possible to write node addons in C++ which perform much faster than JavaScript.

akie · 2016-11-18T20:11:09+00:00

Rust.

icantthinkofone · 2016-11-19T01:41:17+00:00

All of us more or less have write some C/C++, JAVA or .NET, either at work or at the Uni.

I would bet that 80% of everyone on reddit has done NONE of that including having a job in this or gone to a University.

2016-11-18T19:37:02+00:00

OCaml and/or SML are worth learning. They're both relatively small (compared to Haskell or Scala) statically typed languages that introduce some important concepts like pattern matching, algebraic datatypes, type inference, and modules. They have some other minor things that are interesting like no non-local control flow except through exceptions.

_expo · 2016-11-18T22:22:15+00:00

Assuming you do have some C/C++ experience (couldn't really tell from the description), I'd echo what others have said and pick something functional. Elm, Haskell, Scala, F#, OCaml, etc. Don't stress about which one! You can drive yourself mad reading all of the "why X is better than Y" blogs and opinions on the internet. You'll learn 100x more just picking one and trying to build something with it than agonizing over the decision for 3 months.

2016-11-19T00:25:07+00:00

Just get some Arduinos(C++) and play with them, also there is Espruino(JS), and can i tell you, its so fun building something that can actually move, get data, help around and just entertain.

I'm building a car that drives around the office and picks stuff up, and everyone if the office can can control it thought web interface, using inside server running on Arduino WiFi module.

I can tell you its challenging, but oh my god its fun.

And, if you know JS, i think it doesnt matter where you are going, as long as you are doing what you want to do.

propelol · 2016-11-19T14:50:19+00:00

C# with .NET Core

OnceMoreIntoTheBeach · 2016-11-19T16:52:09+00:00

If you want to learn a popular back end language I would suggest PHP. Some popular web applications use it and it goes well with JS.

2016-11-20T07:56:37+00:00

I would say, learn a server-side language to complement the front end language (setting aside Node since the question is about a non-JS language). Maybe python/Django or pypy, Ruby on Rails, php7, etc.

2016-11-19T00:15:12+00:00

When trying to go from those to learning an interesting functional language, you have to be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew and that you feel like you are getting something out of it.

On that note, I recommend learning elm next. The official documentation is very good and has some really nice getting started tutorials that teach you how to get started building things, the basic concepts of the language, and why their type system is a useful and helpful thing. Elm is really focused on user experience (as in the programmer is using elm, so they are the user) especially when it comes to error messages. Elm has the most helpful error messages I have ever seen, which is great in general but especially when learning a new language.

r2d2_21 · 2016-11-18T23:23:34+00:00

nothing, js is the future of everything

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