[Raion]

I figured after some thought today, we could use a good programming thread. Show off what you're working on, talk languages, ask for help, etc. It all goes here. 

I myself have been delving into lua and tcl and I like both languages. They're both easier than Ruby, which I also like. 

Generally, after growing up and learning that languages aren't gonna be perfect, I tend to rate them this way:

Compiled languages:

Top languages: C, C++, Modula-2, Free Pascal

Bottom languages: Rust, Ada

Reason why I've rated Rust low is because the API isn't stable between versions, much like Python, which I'll probably briefly rant on later, and because it has freedom issues because Mozilla aggressively polices its Rust trademarks. 

Ada is because GNAT requires runtime linking against the GCC Ada library, and thus if you statically link, the project must be GPL. This doesn't appear to be as much of an issue on C++ or C based GCC programs. 

Scripting languages:

Top: Lua, tcl, ruby
Mid: Python, Perl
Bottom: Javascript, ReXX (especially aReXX)

Javascript sucks ass, enough said.

aReXX was annoying to try coding for, and I gave up due to its rather obtuse syntax and lack of free documentation at the time. 

Python I can't recommend if you don't need Django or any of Python's wonderful libraries and modules. It's not a terrible language, but the Python 2-3 thing is a problem, plus their codebase, performance and portability aren't good. 

Perl I like, but the fact is a lot of Perl, including my own, is write-only stuff that I do when drunk and when I'm sober, it's like "why the fuck did I do it this way???"

Web languages: 

Top: PHP, Ruby
Mid: Hack
Bottom: Java, Javascript/node.js

Node is just javascript for the web and other stuff. 

Hack, I want to like, but the breaking of PHP compatibility and lack of a good overall environment for it limits its usability.

I rated PHP, despite its warts, known security issues, etc. high because it's well-supported, and it's gotten considerably better with PHP 7.0+ 
Ruby on Rails is so good, that Laravel, Cake, and many other PHP MVCs try to mimic it.

Assembly:

Top: M68k
Mid: VAX, PDP-11, 
Bottom: any RISC assembly language, x86/x64

I coded on M68k a lot in high school, not because I wanted to, but because I was an amiga enthusiast. I made a few programs in it, and among them were:

1. A hard-coded, square wave rendition of Herzog Zwei's Loch track (it was terrible sounding on Paula because Paula is kind of nasty to code for)
2. A missile command 2600 clone for the Amiga. This took me nearly two months of assembly to do. Among the issues:

• Memory leaks like a sieve. I got the main ones, so it worked up until level 8, and then the counter auto-incremented and rolled over, and corrupted part of the exec hunk (Amiga memory layout was kind of annoying) If I did it over again, I'd have probably tried using some of the routines in exec instead of trying to keep the memory fixed in a layout that wasn't ideal. 
  
• Paula's interrupts for the noise the planes and satellites caused jumpy movement, so I basically didn't implement any noise for them.
  
• I only primitively drew graphics, so the routines were slow, stilted, and didn't use any macros. 
  
• The key commands were hard coded. It was: arrow keys to move, z,x,c to fire each base's cache of missiles. 
  
• It crashed constantly. The biggest issue was that the memory map of the Amiga is even worse than the C64, and bank switching isn't really an option if you want quick routines. That is, at least in my experience it took 4 cycles to bank switch. 
  

I sadly don't have the code to these anymore. I programmed them in E-UAE on a powerbook G4 that ended up pretty badly beaten, and being the immature young adult I was, I not only neglected backups, but saw no value in my hard work. 


I want to like C#, but it and Java annoy me due to their runtime/hosted aspects being very CPU-specific. In my opinion, the time I could save coding in C# would be better spent writing a C++ program and then tweaking it to work on all the OSes/platforms I need it for.