Decaflon

I really enjoy writing in PHP. It is the most advanced language I know well enough to start with a blank slate and write a working application, but I still love the fact that I am creating something useful. And when it's useful to other people that is just fantastic. I also like web design, i.e. HTML, CSS, and JS .... althought I can't design worth a crap, i can only code it, but I love messing with other peoples code and chaning it up.

Jesper shared his thoughts on Ruby.

This experiment has strengthened my small experience and general hunch of Ruby: it’s good in the ways that Perl is good, and it’s conventional in the ways that Perl is not conventional (everything is an object! sane OO model! iterators!), but its principle of least surprise introduces bigger surprises: things are less than useful in some common scenarios (threads and concurrency, regexes and multiple matches) simply because they simplify or deviate from the norm.

I may seem like a tool, but seriously -- Ruby is where it's at. No, it's not the fact that Rails is so popular, or that it's so great. It's the fact that Ruby is an immensely powerful language that stresses the aesthetics of it's syntax.

Threads & performance arguments are for programmers that don't realize a programmer's time is 100 times more expensive than new hardware. Sure, it plays it's part -- but the happiness of the programmer should take utmost priority since that is where the true investment in programming is.

Ruby's loose syntax requirements and hash-friendly nature make it a great match for the web and database-driven apps. It makes dealing with heirarchical content a dream, and makes me feel like I'm writing more poetry, less code.

Good old HTML 4.0, tables and all? That's the only stuff I ever knew how to program, I've given up learning all these new-fangled languages.

I really like Java. It is a very well designed language, with good abstractions and design patterns. The only thing I don't lke is the setup, which is a bit annoying (compiling, classpath, etc.)

I hate C and C++: I do not want to have to deal with memory management and pointers. I appreciate a language that will abstract away those ugly details.

PHP is probably the ugliest language I've ever seen. The naming of functions is awful and inconsistent. Maybe it's easier for beginners to pick up, but it feels dirty to me.

Ruby looks interesting, but I just haven't had time or inclination to really sit down and write something with it.

I have to echo kyle, Ruby is where it's at. I love the blocks and the ability to metaprogram. The language would be great without rails, but rails definitely gives an incentive to learn it.

yeah, what Kyle said. Although I am curious about Python. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems that unlike in Ruby there's no need to write 'end' time and time again. That'd be great :)

I guess Rails is the reason why I got into Ruby rather than Python once I got sick of PHP. Like blissdev said, Ruby is great without rails, but rails is the incentive to actually dive into it.

For my first job we used Jython, which was pretty cool - using Python syntax but being able to access Java classes and objects. We used it for scripts, which was definitely nicer than using shell scripts.

French is my favourite language followed closely by Italian :)

I was waiting for that crack. Surprised it took so long.

Pascal is the only real programming language I know. It makes me want to fuck shit up. Seriously.

.NET gave you any sort of pleasure? Are you serious? .NET is just as braindead as Java, except with Windows Forms, it's much less of a pain to deal with the UI (Swing and SWT are icky).

But frankly, you haven't experienced programming until you've used Cocoa (Objective-C). When using Core Data, and Cocoa Bindings, programming because an absolute delight.

I've been toying with Ruby on Rails lately, but frankly, a language without semicolons and curly-braces....scares the hell out of me ;)

I do Ruby right now, frankly I have started with through Rails but after that I sink into its magic.. I love the dynamics it has in it and the super clean code.

I'm thinking also of following the practise of learning a programming language every year, I guess (after trying 3-4 programming languages already) that it really stretch your mind and let you understand the strength you had in each.

My first love is Ruby for it's super simple approach on OOP. Sure Ruby got it's fame because of Rails.

Python also shows a promise majorly as a programming language for mobile. Symbian OS already providing Python based Open Source Development Environment.

@Tyle I think you have not explored .net that much Believe me its a very powerful language. and I find it hunder times more easier than Java. Java is slow and has a horible user interface.

It's going to have to be Python. I've tried the rest (yes, Ruby, Perl, C/C++/Java etc.), and nothing to me is more beautiful (code-wise, of course), than the magic of Python list comprehensions or the wonderful way I can just talk to the interpreter and get stuff done.

Django is just an added bonus that I've grown to love and am looking to get married to.

Bah, no edit feature...

I have not tried .NET. To tell you the truth, I've heard both good and bad things, but I'm not sure I want to invest myself in something like .NET now.

bluesaze: It all depends on which version of the .NET framework you speak of, 1.0? Surely not, 1.1? Possibly, or the fancy smancy .NET 2.0? .NET is an expansive framework, yes, but it's nothing to wet your pantaloons about.

C# however, is a _very_ powerful modern language, reflection and the stack introspection you're allowed to do in C# is simply amazing in my opinion. It's a bit weird to me to do event-based programming in C#, but it's still quite powerful, we've had applications that were almost entirely event driven, and it is quite amazing how much C# when coupled with either the Mono frameworks, or .NET itself can be.

It's very similar in the Mac world, the Cocoa API is fantastic, and expansive, but it's power lies in the fact that it is based on Objective-C, another very powerful modern language (sort of modern, I guess).

PHP, Java, and C# are without a doubt three of my favorites. It just stinks that two of those that I like the most, PHP and Java, can't always do what I want them do. Haha.

My favourite is PHP but that's not saying I don't recognise it's limitations. I am still trying to get enough time to do the Ruby thing and think it is good but I end up working on back to back projects so time not being there to deviate from PHP (I would say safe PHP if I wanted a barrage of security lacking PHP answers). I started in C/ C++ and visual C++ and then went over to Java after leaving the gaming industry. I still have a soft spot for Java but I haven't kept up with it. I have also loved Python since finding it a while ago during my degree.

I am a full blown c# developer and have found it extremely powerful for both web and desktop apps. This isn't to say that I don't use PhP, but I wanted to give c# some credit.

Russian, 1st one I learned

This is a tough one, but I LOVE Perl. Give me a *NIX box and task me with scripting some stuff, and I'm one happy girl.

mmmmm ADA

xHTML to CSS, to .Net, to Coldfusion, to PHP.

SQL deserves so much respect... it rules the world (regardless of the flavor/vendor... i.e. MySQL, SQLServer, Access, dBase, FoxPro (yeah right!)).

And I flunked Db in college once... but now I can't live without it, damn teachers. =)

Way back when AOL was on top my language was Visual Basics. I could code a quick app to do whatever the hell I wanted, and the .bas files were like our version of the open source community. Someone would figure out a ew trick, code the function and the next week everyone would add it to their program or bot. I mean the language was so straight forward anyone could pick it up. It was basically like if this happens, do that, no questions asked, no other items to check or arrays to check. Those were the days.

My favorite is Little Quilt, which we had to code a program in back in college during a unit on recursion. Anyone else use this brilliant language, which you could use to... make little quilts...

Quilts? Really? Makes me think of Logo.

I'm not finding many references to it on Google, for a second I thought I might have dreamed the whole thing. But here's a link to the textbook the class used -- http://www.nbcindia.com/Descriptions.asp?title_id=269

If you load that, you'll note that chapter 9.7 is about Little Quilt.

And if you're feeling brave enough to open a .ppt file, here's a link to a some random college class professor's power point, which goes over Little Quilt: http://www.cs.su.ac.th/~kanawong/courses/517211/slide/517211_ch08.ppt

The language that gives me the most pleasure is usually the one I'm in the process of learning or starting to get good at. Right now it would be Javascript and PHP, I've been working on some more serious projects relying on them recently and am quite happy with the results. But I remember the times when I was quite enamored with HTML, Cold Fusion, Java, SQL, CSS, and others. Ánd there will be others. I'm going to be playing around with Rails and Python, I'm sure I'll enjoy those as well!

Start with python then end with c/c++/java and embeded languages like emb c or assembly etc.Good luck.

I like PHP. Personally, it is one language which I could learn very easily and move on very well. It's easy enough for me to be able to make changes to my wordpress and other websites of mine. Easy of use and flexible. I use it on web, on linux at command line and also working on developing GUI applications based on GTK kits. It's easy and fun to learn PHP!

I'm with Gravis, PHP is my programming language of choice for most web applications.

I come from an ASP background, so learning PHP was really easy for me.

When I want to amaze and shock people, I'll program in Forth.

I'm still all about the PHP since it is the most readily available on servers and the library is still the most extensive. Definitely meaning to give Python a try this year though.

I deal with real time systems daily so my favorite is C, perl and verilog.

If I must choose a web2.0 language, then it will have to be PHP.

RoR got me into Ruby, but had it not existed and had I discovered Ruby anyway, I'd still love it as much as I do. I've even written my own framework in it. I'm a sucker for aesthetics, and in that case Ruby/Python is where it's at.

I favor C# and getting introduced to F# looks like a good enhancement. As well as using the entire .NET 3.5 framework with Linq it creates a great environment.

I also for certain tasks like to use Iron Python and Iron Ruby.

http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython

http://www.ironruby.net/

I really like to program with PHP. I find it to be really easy to work with. Plus if the app is written properly I know that it will scale very well. I have done a little with Perl and Python and I find them both interesting languages but I have not found the time or need to go very in depth with them. I have also tried RoR and it's nice but like Scrivs said both PHP and Python have some amazing frameworks which gave you basically the same ease of development as RoR.

@tyler
You're either speaking of C# and .NET as if they are -- or have once been -- separate entities, or of .NET as a language in and of itself, even if you did use the word "framework." Was that intentional or did you improperly use "however?" I only ask because of your previous harsh criticism of the .NET framework, then the complete turn-around with the glorification of C#, which has always been one of its components.

As for me, I have been a .NET developer for a little over three years now and have become hooked. Despite its sometimes harsh criticisms, usually by anti-Microsoft zealots or 'hardcore' programmers (read, "masochists"), it is a brilliant framework which makes the development process a breeze for most Windows and web applications (not web /sites/, mind you). I'm most "familiar" with C# semantics, but at work I'm usually forced to use VB.NET since that's the only one with which my boss is familiar. No big deal, but at times I do run into some minor, though irritating, problems.

On the other hand, I'm a good old fashioned C/C++ developer for non-web applications in my spare time, PHP for web apps. Those are my favorites outside of the .NET universe.

C#, hands down. VB is for kids who didn't do well with reading comprehension in school...

I like Objective C's elegance and syntax now that I've been using it for about a month or so. Code looks beautiful.

First choice is Ruby as a language.

Otherwise PHP mainly because I've got too many years experience not to.

I like php because its easy enough to work with and is plenty flexible for most everything I need it to do.