RPGDX > Forums > Design and programming > The Obligatory Language Poll

DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

Since this is the programming and design forum, Im kinda curious what language(s) people mainly use or rather prefer using be it proffesionally or for hobby projects.

I hope I didn't forget someones main language. I would have liked to had a multi-answerable poll since the language I in many regards think is the most 'fun' to tinker with is x86 asm but the language I use for most serious development is C++.

But I'll stand by C++.

Happy polling, and try to keep the trollin' to a minimum.
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RuneLancer · Mage Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 441

I second C++. I've always had a thing for low-level languages and while the extra OOP makes it a bit higher-level than regular C, it still allows for massive flexibility. It also seems to be one of the more supported languages, meaning there are a lot of resources available for it.
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Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

I use both Python and C++ regularily. Python for tools and scripts, C++ for engine code. Python is far more pleasant to program in. I also have a custom scripting language, loosely based on Io, which I intend to use for scripting in my future games.

DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

I've been meaning to have a look at python some day, but mostly when people start touting it's features like 'duck typing is the shit!!!!' I just go huh!?! I've been doing that for ages only without getting type errors when my duck really was a saltwater croc in disguse.

But yeah I should look into it some day... soon.

What I love with C++ is mainly that the language is powerfull enough to quite handilly be extended using itself instead of needing to get anything bolted and duct taped on as an afterthought.
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LeoDraco · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:29 am Post subject:

Pretty much all of my "serious" stuff --- so, everything save quick, dirty hacks --- is done in C++; barring some mucking about with QB years ago, C++ is pretty much my milk-tongue, and, barring the lack of some modern OOPL conveniences (mainly the lack of proper interfaces), it's good enough for everything I want to do.

Now, for web-stuff, I predominantly hack things in PHP; since I got my hands on a build of 5, I've fell in love with the language all over again. Although, there are things that I wish were included in the language. (Namely: namespaces, enumerations, and full support for traditional type hinting, rather than the ad hoc limitation to objects and (since 5.1) arrays (which, even then, is only on parameters, rather than on variable declarations).) I've also used it for a translation of a project --- an interpreter I wrote a couple of years ago for a course --- from C++; I got the crazy idea that part of the code base would benefit more from the proper use of interfaces, and didn't feel like banging my head against the wall while finagling multi-inheritance to work properly.

I've been hacking away in VB.NET at work; while I don't much care for the language, it is a rather nifty OOPL.
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Adam · Mage Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Posts: 416 Location: Australia

No javascript?
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DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

Adam · Mage Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Posts: 416 Location: Australia

Verious · Mage Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 409 Location: Online

Where's Visual Basic, VBScript (for ASP), and VB.Net?

DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

RuneLancer · Mage Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 441

No brainf*ck? :( LUA? RPGMaker's scripting language? :(
(Kidding. :P)

I'd have to say 65816 is my second choice, but it's the only console I actually write stuff for so it'd be a bit of an uneven vote.

Naw. C++ all the way, says I! :P Properly used, it's very flexible and self-complementing. Like DC said, it's pretty much self-extendable. With proper OOP and a good grasp of the language, anyone can write a solid game engine that's structured, easily maintainable, and performant. Of course, that can be said of any language (except brainf*ck :P)
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Nodtveidt · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject:

FB and C are my primary languages (more FB though, so that's what I had to vote), followed by C++, VB6, and 6502 assembly in smaller but roughly equal-to-each-other doses. I don't touch .net with an eleventeen foot pole (the entire architecture is just plain blasphemous) and none of the rest of the languages you mentioned interest me.

I am no longer a commercial developer so I get to use whatever the hell I feel like. :D
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RuneLancer · Mage Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 441

Just out of curiousity, though: does anyone use esotheric programming languages (either seriously (woah...) or as a mere curio)?

I've worked with BrainF*ck for a little while. The language has a very simple syntax: given a single pointer to a pool of (say...) 32k of memory, you have the following commands...

+/- Increment/Decrement the byte currently pointed to by 1. Overflow isn't handled.
>/< Increment/Decrement the pointer to memory.
./, Input/Output a byte into/from the byte pointed to by the memory pointer (by ascii code).
[ Begins a loop
] Closes a loop. If the byte currently pointed to isn't equal to 0, it loops back to the first [. Nested loops ARE supported.

An example is as follows...
++++++[>++++++++++<-]>++++.
Basically, $0000 is set to 6. We begin a loop and move to $0001. We add 10 to it, then move back to $0000, which we decrement. Our loop ends if $0000 is equal to 0, otherwise we loop again. Afterwards, we move back to $0001 and add 4. This is a shortcut to avoid typing 64 plusses. :P Finally, we output the character at $0001: "A".

I've seen a program which calculates pi in BF. Whew. 5k of seemingly random junk. :P Good luck following that code!

Other esotheric, never-used "joke" languages include Befunged, Unlambda, Thue, and of course, COBOL.

I once wrote a parody of these by making an interpretor for a language with 2 instructions: increment current byte, and move pointer forward. Basically the resulting code was shot straight into memory as assembly. It was quite fun writing assembly in essentially raw hex, but terribly time-consuming. Did impress a few collegues at work though: my demo was some nice particle "galaxy" system with full-screen blurring (albeit rather shoddy "fake" blurring from the good old ages of .com executables.)
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DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

Hehe, played around quite a bit with brainfuck but mainly from the "write a really small interpreter" perspective. Whitespace and OOK are similar languages to BF (OOK is basicly BF for orangutans).
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RuneLancer · Mage Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 441

There was a wonderful site on esotheric programming topics of all sorts called "Cat's Eye Technologies" Unfortunately the site seems to have vanished.

I think I have a mirror of it somewhere though... I'll try to post it when I get home, or something like that.
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