Which programming language for programming for fun?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris
  • Start date Start date
Chris said:
Which free programming language is best for programming for fun?
Click to expand...

It's one that you don't already know.

There exist languages that are what might be described as "unique", and
have ideas surrounding them which set them apart from other languages.
I'm thinking: Lisp, Smalltalk, Forth, Assembler (not for the feint of
heart). Python might also be described as fun, and so too might Basic.
If you already know some languages, then try something else from the
list. Languages that I would specifically exclude from the "fun" list
are: Cobol, FORTRAN, Java, Perl.

What might get your creative juices running is Squeak, a free
implementation of Smalltalk:
http://www.squeak.org/
Smalltalk is sorta unique. It is a graphical world which you can extend,
unlike other languages, where you have to bolt on GUIs if you need them.

If you just want to muck about with programming without necessarily
wanting to "achieve" anything, then one of the so-called obfuscated
programming languages may tickle you fancy. The canonical language in
this category is INTERCAL:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/
For sheer impossibility of programming, there's Malborge:
http://www.lscheffer.com/malbolge.shtml
One guy used a genetic algorithm simply to get Malborge to print "hello
world" (and even then he didn't get the capitalisation quite right) -
although I've learned that it is not strictly necesaary to resort to AI
techniques to get Malborge to actually "do" anything.

There's a whole selection of obfuscated programming languages over at:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Obfuscated/
Some of the languages are little more than gag ideas - but some of them
explore interesting programming concepts. Definitely worth checking out
for the mathematically/programmatically inclined.
 
Il Thu, 30 Mar 2006 21:14:27 +0100, Chris ha scritto:
Which free programming language is best for programming for fun?
Click to expand...

it depends on you backgroud
for me the best is Delphi
you can get a freeware 'clone' that is calle d Lazarus here
http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/

even if I have got a copy of Delphi 3 Professional for free froma a British
magazine.

Delphi 3 Professional is enough to write all someone can need to program
for fun (and not only for fun), it's quite easy and ther

Moreover there are tons of documentation and free components here
http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/

you can get more information here
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/pascal.shtml

HTH
 
Mark said:
It's one that you don't already know.

There exist languages that are what might be described as "unique", and
have ideas surrounding them which set them apart from other languages.
I'm thinking: Lisp, Smalltalk, Forth, Assembler.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it's also worth mentioning a Functional Programming language.
These languages focus on "conceptual purity". They're very
"mathematical", and so might appeal to someone looking for fun ( The
purist of them is Haskell:
http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell
although if you don't want to be quite so pure, OCaml has a lot of
adherents:
http://caml.inria.fr/

On the subject of mathematics being "fun" ... I remember when I was
doing an MSc in maths. One of the lecturers remarked that he had
recently attended a conference on algebra, which brought out howls of
derision from some of the other students. b-squared minus 4 a c, and so
forth.
 
Chris said:
Which free programming language is best for programming for fun?
Click to expand...

Simple to learn? Graphics interface to produce real programs?
Thousands of example programs to play with and develop further?

RapidQ Basic, in its latest updated version, RapidQ2, here

http://www.airsys.org/downloads.php?cat_id=2

Big download file, 18MB, but it contains everything you need, different
programmer's user interfaces, compiler, help and tutorials, and an
incredible collection of programs or code snippets.

RapidQ is like visual basic, but readable, which VB is not.
RapidQ is freeware, which VB is not.

It is very compatible with QuickBasic and has added visual elements.
Produces standard windows programs.
So you can specify a program form, a title, buttons and menues, all
easily readable and much simpler to understand than visual basic
programs.

There are several graphical interface design programs to simplify
setting up a program interface, but the code is so easy to read that
you can write the interface if you prefer that.

Hundreds of active users, several yahoo groups devoted to RapidQ Basic.
RapidQ web site http://g.yi.org/?f=216
 
Languages that I would specifically exclude from the "fun" list
are: Cobol, FORTRAN, Java, Perl.
Click to expand...

We really have different ideas of "fun", Mark. Perl is fun. Java is
fun. Spitbol and ATLAS aren't fun.

Cobol is a crime, isn't it? If not, it should be.
 
@RapidQ : looks interesting. Do you have some more samples? What is the
"top" of programs (i mean: which kind of software can you make? How
"difficult"?)
 
Juergen Bors said:
Am 2006-03-30 schrieb Chris:


FreeBASIC - as the name suggests - is a completely free, open-source,
32-bit BASIC compiler, with the syntax the most compatible possible with
MS-QuickBASIC, that adds new features such as pointers, unsigned data
types, inline-assembly and many others.

http://www.freebasic.net

Or see the features:

http://www.freebasic.net/index.php/about?section=features
Click to expand...
I`ve just been for a look at the features. I think your correct J.
That should do the OP perfectly.
 
It's one that you don't already know.

There exist languages that are what might be described as "unique", and
have ideas surrounding them which set them apart from other languages.
I'm thinking: Lisp, Smalltalk, Forth, Assembler (not for the feint of
heart). Python might also be described as fun, and so too might Basic.
If you already know some languages, then try something else from the
list. Languages that I would specifically exclude from the "fun" list
are: Cobol, FORTRAN, Java, Perl.

What might get your creative juices running is Squeak, a free
implementation of Smalltalk:
http://www.squeak.org/
Smalltalk is sorta unique. It is a graphical world which you can extend,
unlike other languages, where you have to bolt on GUIs if you need them.

If you just want to muck about with programming without necessarily
wanting to "achieve" anything, then one of the so-called obfuscated
programming languages may tickle you fancy. The canonical language in
this category is INTERCAL:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/
For sheer impossibility of programming, there's Malborge:
http://www.lscheffer.com/malbolge.shtml
One guy used a genetic algorithm simply to get Malborge to print "hello
world" (and even then he didn't get the capitalisation quite right) -
although I've learned that it is not strictly necesaary to resort to AI
techniques to get Malborge to actually "do" anything.

There's a whole selection of obfuscated programming languages over at:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Obfuscated/
Some of the languages are little more than gag ideas - but some of them
explore interesting programming concepts. Definitely worth checking out
for the mathematically/programmatically inclined.
Click to expand...

Cool. A free Smalltalk.

Also, one not mentioned - Prolog, if you want something completely different...

Check here for a free one (I believe they did Turbo-Prolog for Borland
originally).

http://www.swi-prolog.org/

Toad
 
Chris <nospam@[127.0.0.1]> said:
Which free programming language is best for programming for fun?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your suggestions.
I have looked them all up - and provisionally narrowed it down to:
FreeBASIC
Python
Ruby
Squeak

I don't know enough to choose wisely - and so I will just mention one
thing that I had thought of doing - and ask which would be best for
that.

I would like to set up an array - one or two dimensions - and write it
to hard drive as a file - and then read it back - muck about with it -
and write it back to the file. A very simple fixed-record-length file
would be fine - and sequential access would be fine.

Which of those languages would do that easily?
 
Chris said:
Chris <nospam@[127.0.0.1]> said:
Which free programming language is best for programming for fun?
Click to expand...


Thanks for all your suggestions.
I have looked them all up - and provisionally narrowed it down to:
FreeBASIC
Python
Ruby
Squeak

I don't know enough to choose wisely - and so I will just mention one
thing that I had thought of doing - and ask which would be best for that.
Click to expand...
I would like to set up an array - one or two dimensions - and write it
to hard drive as a file - and then read it back - muck about with it -
and write it back to the file. A very simple fixed-record-length file
would be fine - and sequential access would be fine.
Click to expand...

Both Python and Ruby have persistence mechanisms in the form of Pickle
and Marshal, respectively, which can be used to store data in their own
form. The files are not designed for you to manually edit, but they do
support the requirement you stated above. If you want "human-readable"
and editable formats, then it is is possible to obtain extensions. The
YAML format
http://www.yaml.org/
is available for both Python and Ruby (although not out-of-the-box).
Another format is JSON:
http://www.json.org/
likewise available for Python and Ruby.
So the world is your lobster.

From my own point-of-view I've been a keen advocate of Python. I tried
Ruby once, and found it to be less mature than Python, so I quickly
reverted. For example, I don't know if you are aware of the link
summaries I do of this group:
http://www.dana.freedns.us:81/
The web pages that appear every day are generated by Python, with help
from the nntplib module that comes with Python out-of-the-box. So you
can see that Python comes with a very useful set of libraries. When I
had investigated Ruby at the time, I found that their version wasn't
really up to snuff. Maybe things have improved since then.

I can't really give advice as regards FreeBasic or Squeak. A quick
Google revealed a version of JSON for Squeak. You might find Squeak
interesting on account of it being "image based". So you could create an
array, then save-and-quit Squeak. When you reopen Squeak, the
information will still be there. This probably isn't the safest strategy
in the world, but it's something that Squeak does that the other guys
don't. You can play about with ideas "on the fly", save your work, and
resume it later.

FreeBasic is undoubtedly the least mature of the offering, and seeings
as I've never used it, can't offer much advice. You'd probably have to
Google around to see if there's anything useful. Having said that,
FreeBasic does seem to offer some nice graphics capabilites.

Which of those languages would do that easily?
Click to expand...

Hmm, maybe Squeak is a little complicated if you just want to get
started programming. And I don't know what the compilation process of
FreeBasic is like, so I'd be tempted to advise either Ruby or Python. I
think Python wins out for maturity and availability of libraries. For my
money, Python just plain works; although I don't see any harm in
experimenting with other languages.

The choice, as they say, is your.
 
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