Why are there so many Computer Programming Languages? (Learn To Program With Huw)

So many programming languages, so little time!

After all these decades of programming, people are still using lots of different languages. You’d think that by now programmers would have managed to decide on which is the “best” language and then stick to that one. But no. We are faced with a choice between C, C#, Java, Python, Pascal, Ruby and more…

What’s the point of all those programming languages?

Be sure to bookmark the course playlist and subscribe to the Code With Huw Channel.

In this short lesson, I give you a quick overview of this course and offer advice on how you should study it.

In this course, I will teach you everything you need to know to understand how computer programs really work. This is not yet another “How To Program In (Some language)” course. In this course I will teach you the essential details that you need to know in order to program in any modern language. If you are following a more traditional programming course at school or college ore if you are learning on your own, this course will help you to understand topics that may have you baffled!

I have spent over 40 years programming, teaching other people to program, writing programming books and working as a software developer. In this course, I aim to distil the knowledge that I’ve gained to help you to understand the art and science of computer programming.

PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE
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While this course does not require that you use any specific programming language, there will be some ‘Hands On’ lessons taught in C# and Java. The best way to study, therefore, is to use at least one of those two languages. On Windows, I recommend installing C# and Visual Studio.

Alternatively, you can install Java and an IDE (I’ll be using NetBeans) on any operating system.

PROGRAMMING BOOKS
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If you want to learn C# and Java programming in more depth (and also support this channel!) you might think of buying one of my books. I have written books on C programming, Object Pascal (Delphi), Ruby and other languages. If you want to follow this course using Java, you may find my Java book useful:

The Little Book Of Java Programming

If you are following the course using C#, I recommend this book:

The Little Book Of C# Programming

Good luck! And good programming!
Huw

[johnmccool]

Thank you! Excellent intro. Your explanation made me think about how DNS functions a level up to translate IPs and human language.

[defnlife]

pretty new to programming, and mostly self taught, seems like a shame that Pascal isn't as well known, at least not anymore, though the syntax lives on in other languages. When you see the language speed and energy usage benchmarks Pascal is still up there with C and C++, Go and rust, as some of the fastest and most efficient languages and that seems wild to me. pascal needs more love, maybe more tools beyond lazarus, like stuff for calling from neovim and vs code, which is probably trivial, and maybe some bindings for libraries like torch, etc. maybe those exist, i don't know, maybe it's up to us to create them.