Which Programming Language Should I Learn?

A choose your own adventure book

Do you already know a programming language?

• Yes
• No

Do you want to try something new?

• Yes
• No

Do you have friends who will mentor you?

• Yes
• No

Do you want to get better at your current language?

• Yes
• No

Cool. Keep working with that.

Fair Enough. Your life is yours. We all get around 1000 months to enjoy. Make 'em count.

Is downloading and configuring going to stop you from getting started?

• Yes
• No

What do you want to make?

• Games
• Mobile apps
• Websites
• Desktop apps
• Statistics
• I just want to practice programming

Use whatever they use

What do you want to learn?

• Functional programming
• Operating systems
• System architecture
• Regular expressions
• Natural language processing
• How my computer really works

Do you need a database?

• Yes
• No

Can you rely on data from Web APIs instead?

• Yes
• No

what would you rather use?

• Node (cutting edge)
• Rails (more established)

What Kind Of Games?

• Mobile
• Browser
• AAA (large studio)

What statement do you agree with more?

• Simpler tools would be easier for practicing
• I only want to use standard industry tools

Perl it is!

Which OS?

• Mac
• Linux
• Windows

Which Mobile Platform?

• iPhone/iPad
• Android
• Windows

What about C?

• Sounds good!
• I want to go deeper
• Too nit-picky

What about C++?

• Sounds good!
• I want to go deeper
• Too nit-picky

What about C#?

• Works for me.
• Seems hard. I don't need a native app

What about JavaScript?

• Sounds great
• I want a different backend web language
• Maybe I should just learn CoffeeScript
• Just not what I'm looking for

...C'mon

• Okay. Nevermind.

What about Objective-C?

• Works for me
• Shouldn't I use Swift instead?
• Seems hard. I don't need a native app

What about Java?

• Sounds good
• Maybe something a little more hardcore

What about Assembly?

• Sounds good
• Too nit-picky

What about Python?

• Sounds good
• Something lower level
• Something similar, but I'm scared of snakes

What about R?

• Great
• Something more general purpose

What about Ruby?

• Yes
• Something lower level
• Something similar, but used by Google
• Something less hip, but still popular

What about Lisp?

• Yes
• Too weird

What about Haskell?

• Yes
• Too weird

What about Clojure?

• Yes
• Still too weird

What about PHP?

• If it's good enough for facebook, it's good enough for me.
• I've heard bad things

What about Perl?

• Sounds good
• I've heard bad things

C it is!

C++ it is!

C# it is!

Objective-C it is!

Python it is!

Ruby it is!

JavaScript it is!

Haskell it is!

Lisp it is!

Clojure it is!

PHP it is!

R it is!

Java it is!

Assembly it is!

What about Swift?

This is great if you want to work on Mac (Mavericks+) or iOS (7+)

• Oh. I need to support older systems...
• Sounds Good!

Swift it is!