How many lnaguages do you speak?
June 24, 2007 by zetwal

Walking in Port-Louis the other day, I heard people speaking creole, french and english and this led me to start thinking … how many computer languages do I speak?
Just a couple I thought but as soon as I started counting, I ran out of fingers. So chronologically, these are all the languages I learnt (but that does not mean I remember all of them):
- DBase IV : my introductory programming language, big white characters on a blue screen
- FoxPro : the follow up to dbase. No more blue screens; now I have a windows based environment
- Centura : an OODBMS, learnt that while on placement at DCDM before coming to uni … what the hell is OO???
- C : oooohhhh a must for all so called computer scientists, feel the raw power on the machine - looks like I’m sitting on the registers
- C++: the normal follow up to C - C plus plus some features; my favourite these days
- SQL: if u r into databases,…
- Java: the defacto OO language these days, according to Paul Graham, it won’t last long
- VB : nice for interfaces and … that’s it
- VB Script : shame on me I learnt that
- Prolog / LISP: the AI languages, LISP is full of brakets but if you know how to use it, it’s awesome
- ActionScript : yooooooooooo - rocks and great for customizing Flash
- JavaScript: Client side scripting, believed to b the little brother of Java but just as powerful I think for what it is
- ASP, JSP, PHP : the server side languages - I’m more into PHP now but I enjoyed JSP … no comments for ASP
- HTML, VRML : takes a minute to learn
- Smalltalk: only recently discovered, old is gold
- Python : careful, it does not bite or sting or … quite the contrary it’s a very nice language
- Shell scripting : cool for being lazy on linux and laziness is an art for programmers
Well that seems a lot (21) at first sight but that’s normal for programers these days I think. You need to have the right tools for the job and the tools of the programmer r programming languages. Else as Avinash says “Kan ou ena zis marto, tou zafer resembler koulou!” (Translation: “When all u have is a hammer,everything looks like nails to u!”) and we are not in a nails world!
So I still want and need to learn more; for instance I need to learn AJAX and I’ve just started with POVRAY. So how many languages do you speak?



That’s my list:
C, C++, Java, Ruby (but without everyone’s favorite i.e. Rails), VB, VB.NET, C# (count the latter 2 as one), ASP.NET,JavaScript, Lisp, Prolog and some Linux Shell programming.
What I want to learn (more):
Lisp - there’s still a lot to go
Ruby on Rails
Haskell
Of course, there’s much more than just learning these languages. Perhaps I should master the Art of Writing Computer-related Literature
hmmm…..
- qbasic - first language i learnt
- pascal (already forgot about 90% of it :P)
- foxpro (forgot almost everything lol).
- c++, c(very very little)
- actionscript
- php/asp
- html/jscript
- lisp/prolog (a little)
- vb
- java
- sql
hmm i think that’s all .. not much… i am into AJAX right now… (pretty easy at first sight(just javascript and xml) and into DHTML.. next will probably be python…
how many lnaguages do you speak?
compiling…..
syntax error. Line 1 Missing “a” before “n”
Error executing cl.exe
here comes my list then (according the date i used to have coded in that):
- Dbase3+
-bat scripting (windows)
-pascal
-qbasic
-Basic html
-bash scripting
-C then C++
-a little of 16bit assembly on windows
-VB 6 (univ starts)
-PHP
-Javascript
-vbscript (lil)
-Java
-ASP
what i know very very lighty
-Ada
-prolog
-lisp
————————————
okie that was for programming languages, now for talking languages:
-Creole (i am at ease talking in this)
-Tamil
-English
-French (i am weird talking in french though)
-Hindi and urdu (enough to understand and talk back)
-German (lightly..very lightly.. but enough so as i don’t get lost in germany)
————————————-
What i want know:
)
I wanna know
-assembly totally for all architectures (that would be cooooooool)
-Network programming
-Python (i started.. i stopped when i saw how easy it was.. lil did i know at that time of the power of python, ohh i should have completed that tutorial when i had the time..now i feel lost when many unix geeks are talking about python and i don’t understand anything
And what i wanna know about human languages (by order of preference):
-Full knowledge of Russian
-Full knowledge of German
-Full knowledge of latin
-Full knowledge of japanese
-Full knowledge of Chinese
…. and the hard reality:
despite the fact of knowing those languages… it is damned hard to have a normal conversation with somebody (even with my gf), its easier to chat infront of a screen.
wi.. specially when everyone are talking football around.
+S3l
@ Yasir
Lol - very true
C++
Java
VB?
English
French
Creole (enough to not get lost in Mauritius)
Plus a nameless language invented by my sister, my brother and me when we were kids because French was too limited (It had no words for certain concepts).
For example, my sister had us convinced that she was a vampire and that there was a special day (which lasted as long as u wanted) just between Sunday and Monday for those creatures to go drink blood, party AND finish the homework they hadn’t done during the weekend. This day was called “tudi” (the opposite of “jeudi”).
Lol ok that’s weird I know but just thought since we’re talking of languages I’d share.
@ Selven.. Very difficult to decipher russian characters.
здесь приходит мой список после этого (согласовывающ дату, котор я использовал закодировать в том): - Dbase3+ - летучая мышь scripting (окна) - паскаль - qbasic - основной html - bash scripting - ч после этого C++ - немногая из агрегата 16bit на окнах - VB 6 (старты) univ - PHP - javascript - vbscript (lil) - java - asp я знаю очень очень lighty - ada - пролог - шепелявьте okie было для языков программирования, теперь для говоря языков: - креол (я на легкости говоря в этом) - Tamil - английская язык - франчуз (я weird говорить в французском однако) - Hindi и urdu (достаточно понять и поговорить назад) - немец (lightly..very светло. но достаточно для того НОП я не получаю lost в Германии) Я хочу знайте: Wanna ii1 знает - агрегат полно для всеми зодчеств (было бы cooooooool) - программировать сети - Python (я начал. я остановил когда я увидел как легко было. lil я знало на том времени силы python, ohh я должен завершить ту консультацию когда я имел time..now, котор я чувствую lost когда много geeks unix говорят о python и я не пойму что-нибыдь) И wanna I знает о людских языках (by order of предпочтение): - полное знание русского - полное знание немца - полное знание латыни - полное знание японца - полное знание китайца …. и суровая действительность: несмотря на факт знать те языки… оно damned крепко для того чтобы иметь нормальный переговор с кто-нибудь (даже с моим gf), своя легкую для того чтобы побеседовать infront экрана. wi.. специально когда каждое поговорит футбол вокруг. +S3l
Russian version of your post …
i justn oticed that :Shell scripting : cool for being lazy on linux and laziness is an art for programmers
and when i tell that to cindy, she says am crazy :p
Quoting from: http://www.hhhh.org/wiml/virtues.html
Laziness
The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don’t have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.
i’ll try to put that in the order that i learned them, programming languages i mean…
-qbasic (my first language)
-dbase IV (jkc students still learn that?)
-pascal
-visual basic
-php
-c++
-java
-c
-sql
-javascript/vbscript/asp
for the time being, i’m playing around a bit with perl and shell scripting, thats really great for being lazy in linux administration, and i’m also learning to use vbscript to automate administrative task on windows
unfortunately i did not succeed in grasping other paradigms such as functional and declarative…
as for spoken languages, i’m quite fluent in french, creole and english, some words of latin, I want to learn italian and spanish, for some reasons i’ve always been attracted to these two languages.
p.s
amen to zetwal for the quote on laziness, i’ve always said that lazy ppl make this world move forward
Dbase 3+/ FoxPro
Pascal
Java
VB 6 and .NET
HTML, XML
Javascript
ASP.NET with VB.NET scripting
PHP
Ruby
Actionscripting
I never learnt C, C++ or C#. I jumped directly to Java. The only C# piece of codes I know is how to manipulate the BitBlt functions for GDI+ on MS. Windows platform.
luga kiswahili ni muhimu sana……..
What is the purpose of knowing a lot of languages when we can`t understand each other