Which language should I learn?

[Josquius]

I'm thinking I really should try and get back to learning some programming/scripting. It'll likely be a failed attempt like all others that have gone before- I reach a certain stage and stall at the head hurting non-sensicalness. But meh. Gonna try.

Java I hate with a passion. Its the main one they told us to learn at school and it was just horrible.
Basic I like. Though its mostly useless. Did a bit of vb.net though and that was cool. Not sure of any application on a less than super advanced level though.
PHP I pretty decent grounding in. Leads to ugly results but its niceish.
HTML5 could perhaps count here...I've heard its advanced features allow for some rather marvelous stuff these days. Always fancied learning flash though I hear that has been replaced by this.
Python is recommended by a friend. Though what its used for I don't know. Apparently nice and simple but powerful.
C/C++ is of course super useful...but also super hard. I fear the things that are annoying about Java may be more so here. But if I do manage it this time around....things could be wonderful.

So yep. Silly and super broad and open question. The obvious answer is 'depends what you need it for' but I don't need it for anything in particular, I've given up on the idea of any of my little ideas ever getting anywhere. Just need to learn something towards trying to get a job.

[CountDeMoney]

I really wish I took French over Latin, actually.

[Grey Fox]

Python, it's the god damn new hotness.

[mongers]

Python, it's the god damn new hotness.

A remember in my last year of university, Ada was the next big thing according to CSnerds. 

[Josquius]

One of my teachers was bigging up Ruby. Which is so pointless I didn't even include it.

[Vricklund]

Like any language you've got to work with it to make it live. I took Fortran and Scheme courses at Uni but since I hardly use them these days I'd be hard pressed to write a "Hello world" with either. Learning a language for nothing in particular is a waste of time.

A remember in my last year of university, Ada was the next big thing according to CSnerds. 

Hey, I liked Ada! In general I like a strict compiler.

[derspiess]

Python, it's the god damn new hotness.

There's an unofficial Raspberry Pi guide that includes some introductory Python lessons.  I might give them a whirl if I can get some quiet time around the house.

[Zanza]

The languages you named here are very different in purpose and scope. Unless you actually have some kind of project, it's pointless to just learn one of them. Might as well learn Swahili.

That said, if you liked VB, you might want to have a look at C#.

[Josquius]

I figure my chances of guessing right and learning the one language that a particular job needs is rather low so I should just try and get some ability in whichever is the most useful to 1: Perhaps give me a chance with a few jobs. 2: make it look like I actually know something and am fully capable of adapting to whichever is needed for the job. and 3: to actually get me back in a programming mindset and actually capable of then adapting myself to whichever is useful.

Mostly torn between html5 and python at the moment. Web development is an interest but one I've never been particularly technically adept at. Hard to get going though, either set my goals too high or get bored on the naff low level tutorials.

Swahili- would be cool but already got my real language studies covered by Japanese :p

[Caliga]

C#.

[DontSayBanana]

My personal preferences are Java, C#, and Python out of these.

- Java's almost completely platform-independent, so it's great for getting machines on different platforms communicating with each other. 
- C# is (personal opinion) a little less unwieldy than C++, but it opens up a lot of high-speed and low-level options for developing on Windows.
- Python's my scripting language of choice; I tend to use it more for remote apps in web development where I want a little more power than Javascript than for desktop applications.

Oh, and a nitpick: HTML5 is NOT a programming language.  A markup language just adds descriptors that can be parsed by a browser- if you want some action going on in a HTML doc, you need to embed an applet of executable code.  All you can really control with HTML is what's on the page or how the page looks under certain conditions.

[Josquius]

HTML isn:t a programming language certainly, I thought HTML5 had added a lot of programming/scripting elements? What with such advanced stuff being done with it ala flash.


hmm......I think I need to try and think of a doable intermediate level project ....

[The Brain]

Lisp.

[Syt]

Comal was good enough for us in 1991 on Tandy computers at school, so it's good enough for you now!

[Josquius]

Reminds me of the awesome programmable turtle they only rarely let me use in primary school. Damn I wish they let me have more access to the computers then....they practically discouraged people from learning programming during my school days.

It seems I'm still signed on an advanced vb.net course so am thinking of trying to get back into that at the moment. Damn my unfocussed mind