Language Choices

I think that if things were up to me I’d have one list of languages that I concentrate on for continuous study and application development, and a list that I bounce around in for fun and study and making toys and stuff.

The core languages I’d concentrate on for continous study and industrial application development:

• c++
• perl
• common lisp
• ocaml

The languages for prototypes, utilities, fun, exploration and experimentation:

• c
• lua
• javascript
• scheme
• tcl
• smalltalk
• forth
• prolog
• erlang
• sml
• awk
• assembly

I think the core languages are strong enough that any of them could be used for almost any task, but there’s enough flexibility in the list to pick a good match for any particular use.

I’d use the larger list for single purpose apps and experimentation. Each of them is small enough that I think I could get into a partincular language for a month or so and either learn something useful or develop something small but real using it.