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I already have a few languages under my belt (in a rough order of expertise): Python, C, C++, PHP, Javascript, Haskell, Java, MIPS, x86 assembler. But it's been almost 2 years since I learned a new one, and I'm starting to get the itch. I have a few criteria:
Must (repeat: must) have a free Linux implementation
Should be different from the languages I already know. In other words, it should have features that get me thinking about solving problems in a new way.
Should have some potential for practical use. It doesn't need to be the next Java, but this rules out Brainf* and Shakespeare :) I don't really care how many job postings does it have, but real-world apps and libraries are a plus.
Should have at least just enough free learning materials to get me started in it.
I was thinking Lisp (CL? something else?) or OCaml. I already have some experience with functional languages with Haskell (yes I know that Lisp/OCaml are multi-paradigm). I'm not an expert - e.g. parts of code from Real World Haskell can still contort my brain, but I understand the basic concepts and some advanced ones (functors, monads).
Which one to choose? Any other languages that I have overlooked? Also, could you please include some useful links to good books/tutorials etc.
Neither Lisp nor OCaml is super far afield from what you already know. Here are four suggestions chosen partly for intrinsic interest and partly to stretch your horizons.
A logic programming language, probably Prolog. I haven't found good materials online, but the book The Art of Prolog by Sterling and Shapiro is excellent. The more basic textbook by Clocksin and Mellish is also good. The main point of interest is programming with relations, not functions.
A pure object-oriented language, either
Smalltalk or Self. If you've only used hybrid object-oriented languages you'll be amazed how beautiful pure object-orientation can be. I've linked to the Squeak implementation of Smalltalk. I personally would recommend learning Smalltalk before tackling Self; there's a very large and active community and the software is well developed. Self stands on Smalltalk's shoulders and is an even more inspiring design, but the community is much smaller. For those who have access to the ACM Digital library I recommend the excellent talk by Dave Ungar at HOPL-III; the paper is also pretty good.
The Icon programming language has two great things going for it; a powerful and unusual evaluation model with implicit backtracking, and a user-extensible model of string processing that beats regular expressions all hollow. I'm sorry to say that Icon has never quite kept pace with the times, and of all my recommendations it is the least practical. In fact I fear the language is moribund. But it will stretch your mind almost as much as Haskell, and in wildly different directions. Icon is still very useful for string-processing tasks of modest size.
You can read about Icon string processing in an article by Ralph Griswold from Computer Journal.
The Lua programming language is my last and least radical suggestion. Its interest is not so much in novel language features or paradigms but in the superb engineering of the language and its implementation. Lua occupies a number of niches, including scripting, gaming, string processing, and lightweight functional programming. But its main point of interest is its seamless integration with C, and to get the full benefit, you should bind a C library into Lua.
The HOPL-III web site also contains an excellent talk and paper about Lua.
Both Common Lisp and Ocaml are certainly useful to learn. If you already know Haskell, CL might be the more different experience.
SBCL and Clozure CL are both very useful implementations of Common Lisp on Linux. (Overview about various implementations: Common Lisp survey.)
As a starting point I would recommend to use Peter Seibel's excellent book Practical Common Lisp, that is both available online and printed.
Community pointers are here: CLIKI.
Prolog may be what you are looking for.
Edit
The first commenter is right, my answer was pretty short and not very useful, so:
My preferred implementation is SWI-Prolog. I personally learned from Prolog Programming for Artificial Intelligence. It's style is pretty clear and it contains many examples, but I don't own any other book on logic programming (it's a shame, really :) so I have no basis for comparison.
Erlang is pretty interesting to learn because of its super efficient concurrency model, and the ease with which you can write distributed systems (for an example of this, CouchDB was written in Erlang). It's a dynamically typed functional language, but you can also write code in a procedural fashion. The tutorial I learned it with is called "Getting Started with Erlang", which covers just about every part of the language.
If you want to make use of your Java and functional programming knowledge, and you want to learn a Lisp, then try Clojure.
The implementation is free and cross-platform including Linux, because it runs on the JVM. Being a Lisp, it's different enough (in useful and wonderful ways) from most other languages to make things interesting. Some features such as immutable data structures, multimethods, metadata support, focus on safe concurrency, etc. are fairly novel compared to the languages you listed. Clojure is geared heavily toward being a practical and useful language rather than an academic one. It's a functional language but not "pure", which is arguably a good thing. You can also trivially make use of any Java library from within Clojure.
Clojure is a new language, so the only book out so far is Programming Clojure, but it's a pretty good one. There's also a wiki which may not be entirely up-to-date, because the language is still evolving very quickly. The mailing list and IRC channel are very friendly, welcoming places to ask questions. The official website is also a good resource, of course.
I'm going to recommend something that I haven't yet tried, but plan to, so you have to judge for yourself this one. There's this language, called IO, which is particular in that its prototype-based, like JavaScript, but also borrows concepts from many other languages. Its job market it's probably nonexistent, but I thought I mention this language.
Otherwise, a language from the Lisp family may be pretty different from what you already know. In that regard I'd recommend Scheme, which is, in my opinion, more elegant than Common Lisp. The new concept that you might found interesting in Scheme is continuations.
If you take the Scheme path, make some time to watch these videos from 1986. They're amazing.
Have a look at Smalltalk ! Either Cincom VWST or Smalltalk/X - dont bother with Squeak as the interface is terrible). VAST is good also but really only Windows centric. And dont bother about the sceptics that pore scorn on Smalltalk -- they arent using it and are stuck in the morass of edit-run-debug cycle languages and multiple dispirt linked libraries. :-)
Why these Smalltalks - well, they come complete wth excellent IDE, GUI tools builtin, best debugger you will ever see, online help, and is totally independent of the underlying OS. Eg a ST/X programming running under Linux can be transfered ( source code) to Windows ST/X and it should execute.
ST/X is free with only a very minor licience restrictions, Cincom offer a free NC ( Not Commercial ) version that is NOT restricted. I use ST/X as I prefer the default look & feel
it offers. Their IDE interfaces are very similar.
Languages without a IDE & GUI tools are just wasting your time as the world is really GUI, no matter how terrific the underlying language is. Eg Ruby is great, but with no IDE or easy GUI tools its really frustrating.
Smalltalk is not easy to get into, and its not perfect,(what language is?) but very satisfying to learn & use. And now that the hardware and operating systems have finally caught up with Smalltalks needs . very efficient.
I second Rainer's Common Lisp recommendation.
CL has all the things you're looking for and will provide a genuinely novel experience that will also make your coding efforts and approaches in other languages better.
But bring patience and persistence, you will have to grasp a lot of concepts that will seem alien at first.
You could try Tcl. It was sufficiently different to provoke an adverse reaction in my brain, so I can't really tell you how I found it different, but there's been a lot of good stuff written in it (maybe less nowadays than earlier).
C# has a free implementation in Linux under the Mono project, and it arguably is a very marketable skill unless you're completely anti-Microsoft.
My favorite C# book is Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition.
If you're really want exotic, F# is an OCaml style language that runs on the .NET platform and mono, and is getting a lot of attention these days.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/fsharp/default.aspx
Books for F#:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=f%23
Of the suggestions I've seen so far, I like Lisp (see Secko) and Smalltalk (see brett), as both will give you another view of languages. Prolog even more so.
Another language that is different is Erlang -- I haven't had a chance to learn it yet, but it handles concurrency in a different way. The best link I can give you is the main website.
In terms of recommendations, Lisp is good both because it is currently used and because it is very old. The others you will have to look at sources and see which one appeals the most.
Try FORTRAN, then? I hear it's still actively used by the scientific and mathemematical communities, plus it should be dissimilar enough to be a learning challenge.
Compilers:
http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GFortranBinaries
http://www.g95.org/
http://www.fortran.com/compilers.html
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/fortran.shtml
IDEs:
http://www.eclipse.org/photran/
http://force.lepsch.com/ (FORTRAN 77 only)
Tutorials:
Introduction to Modern FORTRAN: http://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/courses/Fortran/
FORTRAN 90 Tutorial: http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/COURSES/cs201/NOTES/fortran.html
You could also learn Visual Basic.NET, in case you ever get forced to maintain that. Evidently mono has a working Linux implementation of it:
http://www.mono-project.com/Visual_Basic
Factor is pretty radically different from everything you said you know, and also everything else listed. It's stack-based, like Forth, but has a fairly comprehensive library and a lot of interesting features.
Ada is very practical -- there's a compiler based on gcc -- but also quite different from the other imperative languages you know. I find the type system a bit stifling, but it was worth learning something about.
Lisp is a great HLL, it has everything that other languages lack. In my opinion, this is a very good language that can "satisfy" any programmers needs.
Perl is also a HLL like Lisp, it's interesting and fun at the same time. It derives from C so you can pick it up as you go. It can be hard sometimes and some people tend to get lost while learning, but it's worth knowing.
Both languages are free of use and come with Linux.
Links
Lisp:
If Lisp is so great,
An Introduction and Tutorial for Common Lisp
Perl:
PERL -- Practical Extraction and Report Language
Books
On Lisp - Great book by Paul Graham on the Lisp language. It's free and you can download it here.
Scala has been very good for making me see programming in a new light. I haven't used it for anything worklike yet, but it's still affected how I write code in other languages - not just Java, but PHP. I recently wrote a simple parser for a WordPress plugin, and the code is vastly more functional and immutable than it would have been six months ago, and better for it, despite the lack of enforcement in PHP.
The only other language to have affected the way I work so dramatically is Perl, nearly a decade earlier. Perl has contributed a lot to the way I pseudo-code, even if I never touch the language itself.
Many people compare the functional aspects of Scala to Haskell. You may even imagine that knowing Haskell means you already know all Scala could teach you, but I don't believe that. The way Scala combines OO and function has a way of making it seem like that's actually the truest form of both of them.
Like you, I have over a dozen languages under my belt. While shopping for something to play with for writing a cross-compiler, I ran across ML and family. Many very good ideas there, and they have taught me to write code is a much different way; for example, my JavaScript now has a decidedly functional bent.
After toying with OCaml under Windows a while (and getting frustrated with stability issues), I ran across F#, an offspring of OCaml. The two are quite similar (can cross-compile a lot of code), but OCaml apparently has a really good macro system (P4) and type-classes (in support of writing "strongly typed" operators against generic types), while F# has excellent support for asynchronous and parallel operations, monads, units-of-measure for numeric types, as well as cleaner OO syntax and awesome IDE integration (VS2008 & will be released in-the-box with VS2010). I much prefer F# these days, since I have access to the whole .NET runtime and loads of 3rd party libraries. In fact, I write most of my one-off and utility code in F# now; for me, its generally much more productive than C++, JavaScript, C#, PowerShell, or anything else.
F# works fairly well under Mono on Linux, and has a good following there. The compiler and runtime will be open sourced once stable (released with VS2010), and the developers consider Mono support enough of a priority for it to be seriously considered for non-Microsoft use.
Another project from Jetbrains, their new issue tracker Charisma was written entirely in MPS. Is the concept useful/practical, or is it too soon?
MPS isn't just DSLs for Java. It's actually language-angostic. You can generate your language into any other language that is supported by MPS. We support Java, XML, and plain text (as a last resort) out of the box in MPS 1.1. Probably, in future version, we will provide other languages such as javascript, css, etc.
One of the key features of MPS which isn't available in other tools is ability to compose languages. You can create several language extensions and compose them in a way that you want. For example, one vendor might implement a language for their database, and the other a language for financial calculations. They will work together well, and you won't have any problems like ambiguities, etc.
Man. From my point of view, it's great. It's like Java on steroids, plus DSL-s. Dont' think about it only in terms of DSL. Think completely Turing-complete, including Java generation out-of-the-box. It's like Java 8 + "Common Lisp", on steroids, without the textual-syntax problems. To me it seems like the future. I'm investing in it my heart, mind and soul :). If you are looking for something "ahead of its time", but still practical to use already and very much in touch with the current technologies, that's MPS!
I believe MPS is very worth looking into. The tool is open-source and very robust. Ideas implemented in MPS are extremely powerful and solve a number of challenges that have been with us since the beginning of programming languages (most importantly, language composition). The quality of documentation has been a challenge for beginners, but you can now also read this new book: http://books.campagnelab.org/ (disclaimer: I am the author of the book, but I am not an author of MPS).
It's not the case of 'too soon' but rather the fact that this development methodology is, in itself, rather challenging. The cost/benefit ratio for MPS (and by cost I mean dissemination time) depends largely on the type of the project you're applying it to. If you've got a domain that can benefit greatly from DSLs (for example, with me, it's project management), then go for it!
It seems to be a DSL for Java. Why not investigate it yourself? If it just generates Java source files, I see no reason to not give it a crack, if it's something your interested in and there is no rush on the project.
Can someone explain the concepts that Spec# might be moving into C# 4.0, regarding Code Contracts?
What are code contracts (Looks to be a compile time checking pattern)
should I be excited about this?
Am I correct in assuming that we move what would be runtime checks to compile time?
Thanks!
I personally am a big fan of a guy called Bertrand Meyer who wrote this book called Object Oriented Software Contruction and created a language called Eiffel which endoreses Design By Contract or Contract based programming.
Code Contract is a kind of agreement between 2 software entities that may or may not interact. More or less like interfaces but more precise.
I am not sure if everyone should or would be excited about this.
Your assumption is somewhat correct.
You might want to see this series of videos link
Here's a good description of code contracts straight from Microsoft Research. It sounds like the main benefits are:
Improved testability
Static verification
API documentation (in code)
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I'm interested in compilers, interpreters and languages.
What is the most interesting, but forgotten or unknown, language you know about? And more importantly, why?
I'm interested both in compiled, interpreted and VM languages, but not esoteric languages like Whitespace or BF. Open source would be a plus, of course, since I plan to study and hopefully learn from it.
I love compilers and VMs, and I love Lua.
Lua is not as well supported as many other scripting languages, but from a mindset like yours I'm sure you will fall in love with Lua too. I mean it's like lisp, (can do anything lisp can as far as I know), has lots of the main features from ADA, plus it's got meta programming built right in, with functional programming and object oriented programming loose enough to make any type of domain language you might want. Besides the VM's code is simple C which means you can easily dig right into it to appreciate even at that level.
(And it's open-source MIT license)
I am a fan of the D programming language. Here is a wikipedia article and and intro from the official site.
Some snippets from the wikipedia article:
The D programming language, also known simply as D, is an object-oriented, imperative, multiparadigm system programming language by Walter Bright of Digital Mars. It originated as a re-engineering of C++, but even though it is predominantly influenced by that language, it is not a variant of C++. D has redesigned some C++ features and has been influenced by concepts used in other programming languages, such as Java, C# and Eiffel. A stable version, 1.0, was released on January 2, 2007. An experimental version, 2.0, was released on June 17, 2007.
on features:
D is being designed with lessons learned from practical C++ usage rather than from a theoretical perspective. Even though it uses many C/C++ concepts it also discards some, and as such is not strictly backward compatible with C/C++ source code. It adds to the functionality of C++ by also implementing design by contract, unit testing, true modules, garbage collection, first class arrays, associative arrays, dynamic arrays, array slicing, nested functions, inner classes, closures[2], anonymous functions, compile time function execution, lazy evaluation and has a reengineered template syntax. D retains C++'s ability to do low-level coding, and adds to it with support for an integrated inline assembler. C++ multiple inheritance is replaced by Java style single inheritance with interfaces and mixins. D's declaration, statement and expression syntax closely matches that of C++.
I guess a lot depends on what you mean by 'non-mainstream'.
Would lisp count as non-mainstream?
I would suggest having a look at Erlang - it's been getting a bit of press recently, so some of the learning resources are excellent. If you've used OO and/or procedural languages, Erlang will definitely bend your mind in new and exciting ways.
Erlang is a pure functional language, with ground-up support for concurrent, distributed and fault-tolerant programs. It has a number of interesting features, including the fact that variables aren't really variables at all - they cannot be changed once declared, and are in fact better understood as a form of pattern.
There is some talk around the blogosphere about building on top of the Erlang platform (OTP) and machine support for other languages like Ruby - Erlang would then become a kind of virtual machine for running concurrent apps, which would be a pretty exciting possibility.
I've recently fallen in love with Ocaml and functional languages in general.
Ocaml, for instance, offers the best of all possible worlds. You get code that compiles to executable native machine language as fast as C, or universally portable byte code. You get an interpreter to bring REPL-speed to development. You get all the power of functional programming to produce perfectly orthogonal structures, deep recursion, and true polymorphism. Atop all of this is support for Object-Orientation, which in the context of a functional language that already provides everything OOP promises (encapsulation, modularization, orthogonal functions, and polymorphic recyclability), means OOP that is forced to actually prove itself.
Smalltalk (see discussion linked here). Sort of the grand-daddy of the dynamic languages (with the possible exception of Lisp and SNOBOL). Very nice to work with and sadly trampled by Java and now the newer languages like Python and Ruby.
FORTH was a language designed for low level code on early CPU's. Its most notable feature was RPN stack based math operations. The same type of math used on early HP calculators. For example 1+2+3+4= would be written as 1, 2, 3, 4, + , +, +
Haskell and REBOL are both fascinating languages, for very different reasons.
Haskell can really open your eyes as a developer, with concepts like monads, partial application, pattern matching, algebraic types, etc. It's a smorgasbord for the curious programmer.
REBOL is no slouch either. It's deceptively simple at first, but when you begin to delve into concepts like contexts, PARSE dialects, and Bindology, you realize there's much more than meets the eye. The nice thing about REBOL is that it's much easier to get started with it than with Haskell.
I can't decide which I like better.
Boo targets the .NET framework and is open source. Inspired by Python.
Try colorForth.
PROLOG is a rule-based language with back-track functionality. You can produce very human-readable (as in prosa) code.
I find constraint languages interesting, but it is hard to know what constitutes forgotten or unknown. Here are some languages I know about (this is certainly not an exhaustive list of any kind):
Ciao, YAP, SWI-Prolog, and GNU Prolog are all Prolog implementations. I think they are all open source. Ciao, gnu prolog, and probably the others also, as is common in Prolog implementations, support other constraint types. Integer programming for example.
Mozart and Mercury are both, as I understand it, alternative logic programming languages.
Alice is more in the ML family, but supports constraint programming using the GECODE C++ library.
Drifting a little bit off topic....
Maude is an interesting term rewrite language.
HOL and COQ are both mechanized proof systems which are commonly used in the languages community.
Lambda-the-Ultimate is a good place to talk about and learn more about programming languages.
I would have to say Scheme, especially in it's R6RS incarnation.
Modula-2 is the non-mainstream language that I've found most interesting. Looks mainstream, but doesn't quite work like what we're used to. Inherits a lot from Pascal, and yet is different enough to provide interesting learning possibilities.
Have a look at Io at http://www.iolanguage.com/
or Lisaac at: https://gna.org/projects/isaac/
or Self at: http://self.sourceforge.net/
or Sather (now absolutly forgotten)
or Eiffel http://www.eiffel.com
Why here are a few reasons. Io is absolutly minimalistic and does not even have "control flow elements" as syntacit entities. Lisaad is a follow-up to Eiffel with many simplifications AFAIKT. Self is a followup to Smalltalk and Io has taken quite alot from Self also. The base thing is that the distinction between Class and Object has been given up. Sather is a anwer to Eiffel with a few other rules and better support for functional programming (right from the start).
And Eiffel is definitly a hallmark for statically typed OO-languages. Eiffel was the first langauge whith support for Design by contract, generics (aka templates) and one of the best ways to handle inheritance. It was and is one of the simpler languages still. I for my part found the best libraries for Eiffel.....
It's creator just has one problem, he did not accept other contributions to the OO field.....
Regards
I recently learned of the existence of Icon from this question.
I have since used it in answers to several questions. (1, 2, 3, 4)
It's interesting because of its evaluation strategy - it is the only imperative language I know that supports backtracking. It allows some nice succinct code for many things :)
Learning any language that requires you to rethink your programming habits is a must. A sure sign is the pace at which you skim through the documentation of a language's core (not library). Fast meaning fruitless here.
My short list would be, in my order of exposure and what were the concepts I learned from them:
Assembly, C: great for learning pointers and their arithmetic.
C++: same as C with an introduction to generics, as long as you can stand the incredibly verbose syntax.
Ruby/Lua: scripting languages, dynamically typed, writing bindings for existing C libraries.
Python/C#/Java: skipped, these languages look to me as a rehash of notions originating elsewhere with a huge standard library. Sure the whole packages are nice, but you won't learn new concepts here.
OCaml: type infererence done right, partial application, compiler infered genericity, immutability as a default, how to handle nulls elegantly.
Haskell: laziness by default, monads.
My €.02.
I can't believe Logo is so forgotten. Ok, it's Logo. Sort of like lisp, but with slightly uglier syntax. Although working with lists in Logo, one encounters the delightfully named 'butfirst' and 'butlast' operations. =P
ML. Learning it and using it forces you think differently about programming problems differently. It also grants one patience, in most cases. Most.
How about go? It's brand new, so it's unknown and not mainstream (yet).
It's interesting because the syntax looks like what happens after you put C and pascal into a jar and make 'em fight.
Well once it was called MUMPS but now its called InterSystems Caché
http://www.intersystems.com/cache/
First answer - Scheme. It's not too widely used, but definitely seems like a solid language to use, especially considering the robustness of DrScheme (which in fact compiles Scheme programs to native binary code).
After that - Haskell is incredibly interesting. It's a language which does lazy evaluation right, and the consequences are incredible (including such things as a one-line definition of the fibonnaci sequence).
Going more mainstream, Python is still not really widely accepted in the business circles, but it definitely should be, by now...
Ken Kahn's ToonTalk, a cartoon language with hard-core theoretic underpinnings:
http://www.toontalk.com/
Prograph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prograph ... seems Prograph lives on as Marten:
http://andescotia.com/products/marten/
Self's IDE was/is a thing of beauty, talk about Flow (in the Csíkszentmihályi sense)...
Overall, though, I'd have to say Haskell is the most interesting, for the potential adavances in computing that it represents.
Harbour for dynamic type. Great opition to business apps.
Reia!
http://wiki.reia-lang.org/wiki/Reia_Programming_Language
It's Erlang made sense, it's beutifull and I'm in love. It's so unknown that it doesn't even have a wikipedia page!
The first major (non-BASIC) language that I learned was Dream Maker, from http://www.byond.com.
It's somewhat similar to C++ or Java, but it's largely pre-built for designing multiplayer online games. It's very much based on inheritance.
It's an intersting language especially as a starting language, it gets gratifying results quicker, and lets be honest, most people who are first learning to program are interested in one thing... games.
I find Factor, Oz and OCaml quite interesting. In fact, I have started using Factor for personal projects.
Rebol of course !
It's so simple but so powerfull learn it at http://reboltutorial.com
I've recently looked up a lot about Windows PowerShell.
While not necessarily just a language. It's an awesome shell that has a built-in scripting language. It's basically a super-beefed up command line shell.
Unlike Unix shells, where everything is string text (which definitely has it's benefits), PowerShell commands (cmdlets) use objects. It's based on the .Net framework so you guys who are familiar with that will have probably already figured out that anything PowerShell returns can be piped and the properties and methods of that object can be used. It's fun to say "everything is an object!" again just like when OOP was getting big.
Very neat stuff. For the first time, Windows is implementing some of the Unix command-line interface tools similar to grep and the whole bunch.
If you're interested in VMs, you should look at Parrot...There's a bunch of languages supported and that's pretty neat....
O'caml is a good language if you want to learn how to implement a compiler...
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It wasn't that long ago that I was a beginning coder, trying to find good books/tutorials on languages I wanted to learn. Even still, there are times I need to pick up a language relatively quickly for a new project I am working on. The point of this post is to document some of the best tutorials and books for these languages. I will start the list with the best I can find, but hope you guys out there can help with better suggestions/new languages. Here is what I found:
Since this is now wiki editable, I am giving control up to the community. If you have a suggestion, please put it in this section. I decided to also add a section for general be a better programmer books and online references as well. Once again, all recommendations are welcome.
General Programming
Online Tutorials
Foundations of Programming By Karl Seguin - From Codebetter, its C# based but the ideas ring true across the board, can't believe no-one's posted this yet actually.
How to Write Unmaintainable Code - An anti manual that teaches you how to write code in the most unmaintable way possible. It would be funny if a lot of these suggestions didn't ring so true.
The Programming Section of Wiki Books - suggested by Jim Robert as having a large amount of books/tutorials on multiple languages in various stages of completion
Just the Basics To get a feel for a language.
Books
Code Complete - This book goes without saying, it is truely brilliant in too many ways to mention.
The Pragmatic Programmer - The next best thing to working with a master coder, teaching you everything they know.
Mastering Regular Expressions - Regular Expressions are an essential tool in every programmer's toolbox. This book, recommended by Patrick Lozzi is a great way to learn what they are capable of.
Algorithms in C, C++, and Java - A great way to learn all the classic algorithms if you find Knuth's books a bit too in depth.
C
Online Tutorials
This tutorial seems to pretty consise and thourough, looked over the material and seems to be pretty good. Not sure how friendly it would be to new programmers though.
Books
K&R C - a classic for sure. It might be argued that all programmers should read it.
C Primer Plus - Suggested by Imran as being the ultimate C book for beginning programmers.
C: A Reference Manual - A great reference recommended by Patrick Lozzi.
C++
Online Tutorials
The tutorial on cplusplus.com seems to be the most complete. I found another tutorial here but it doesn't include topics like polymorphism, which I believe is essential. If you are coming from C, this tutorial might be the best for you.
Another useful tutorial, C++ Annotation. In Ubuntu family you can get the ebook on multiple format(pdf, txt, Postscript, and LaTex) by installing c++-annotation package from Synaptic(installed package can be found in /usr/share/doc/c++-annotation/.
Books
The C++ Programming Language - crucial for any C++ programmer.
C++ Primer Plus - Orginally added as a typo, but the amazon reviews are so good, I am going to keep it here until someone says it is a dud.
Effective C++ - Ways to improve your C++ programs.
More Effective C++ - Continuation of Effective C++.
Effective STL - Ways to improve your use of the STL.
Thinking in C++ - Great book, both volumes. Written by Bruce Eckel and Chuck Ellison.
Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ - Stroustrup's introduction to C++.
Accelerated C++ - Andy Koenig and Barbara Moo - An excellent introduction to C++ that doesn't treat C++ as "C with extra bits bolted on", in fact you dive straight in and start using STL early on.
Forth
Books
FORTH, a text and reference. Mahlon G. Kelly and Nicholas
Spies. ISBN 0-13-326349-5 / ISBN 0-13-326331-2. 1986
Prentice-Hall. Leo Brodie's books are good but this book
is even better. For instance it covers defining words and
the interpreter in depth.
Java
Online Tutorials
Sun's Java Tutorials - An official tutorial that seems thourough, but I am not a java expert. You guys know of any better ones?
Books
Head First Java - Recommended as a great introductory text by Patrick Lozzi.
Effective Java - Recommended by pek as a great intermediate text.
Core Java Volume 1 and Core Java Volume 2 - Suggested by FreeMemory as some of the best java references available.
Java Concurrency in Practice - Recommended by MDC as great resource for concurrent programming in Java.
The Java Programing Language
Python
Online Tutorials
Python.org - The online documentation for this language is pretty good. If you know of any better let me know.
Dive Into Python - Suggested by Nickola. Seems to be a python book online.
Perl
Online Tutorials
perldoc perl - This is how I personally got started with the language, and I don't think you will be able to beat it.
Books
Learning Perl - a great way to introduce yourself to the language.
Programming Perl - greatly referred to as the Perl Bible. Essential reference for any serious perl programmer.
Perl Cookbook - A great book that has solutions to many common problems.
Modern Perl Programming - newly released, contains the latest wisdom on modern techniques and tools, including Moose and DBIx::Class.
Ruby
Online Tutorials
Adam Mika suggested Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby but after taking a look at it, I don't know if it is for everyone.
Found this site which seems to offer several tutorials for Ruby on Rails.
Books
Programming Ruby - suggested as a great reference for all things ruby.
Visual Basic
Online Tutorials
Found this site which seems to devote itself to visual basic tutorials. Not sure how good they are though.
PHP
Online Tutorials
The main PHP site - A simple tutorial that allows user comments for each page, which I really like.
PHPFreaks Tutorials - Various tutorials of different difficulty lengths.
Quakenet/PHP tutorials - PHP tutorial that will guide you from ground up.
JavaScript
Online Tutorials
Found a decent tutorial here geared toward non-programmers. Found another more advanced one here. Nickolay suggested A reintroduction to javascript as a good read here.
Books
Head first JavaScript
JavaScript: The Good Parts (with a Google Tech Talk video by the author)
C#
Online Tutorials
C# Station Tutorial - Seems to be a decent tutorial that I dug up, but I am not a C# guy.
C# Language Specification - Suggested by tamberg. Not really a tutorial, but a great reference on all the elements of C#
Books
C# to the point - suggested by tamberg as a short text that explains the language in amazing depth
ocaml
Books
nlucaroni suggested the following:
OCaml for Scientists
Introduction to ocaml
Using Understand and unraveling ocaml: practice to theory and vice versa
Developing Applications using Ocaml - O'Reilly
The Objective Caml System - Official Manua
Haskell
Online Tutorials
nlucaroni suggested the following:
Explore functional programming with Haskell
Books
Real World Haskell
Total Functional Programming
LISP/Scheme
Books
wfarr suggested the following:
The Little Schemer - Introduction to Scheme and functional programming in general
The Seasoned Schemer - Followup to Little Schemer.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - The definitive book on Lisp (also available online).
Practical Common Lisp - A good introduction to Lisp with several examples of practical use.
On Lisp - Advanced Topics in Lisp
How to Design Programs - An Introduction to Computing and Programming
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp - an approach to high quality Lisp programming
What about you guys? Am I totally off on some of there? Did I leave out your favorite language? I will take the best comments and modify the question with the suggestions.
I know this is going to seem old-fashioned, but I don't think much of using online tutorials to learn programming languages or platforms. These generally give you no more than a little taste of the language. To really learn a language, you need the equivalent of a "book", and in many cases, this means a real dead-tree book.
If you want to learn C, read K&R. If you want to learn C++, read Stroustrup. If you want to learn Lisp/Scheme, read SICP. Etc.
If you're not willing to spend more than $30 and a few hours to learn a language, you probably aren't going to learn it.
These are all really good, written by academia and (some) are books (an unpublished oreilly book --translated from French, but no issues I've found), for example). I've *'d my favorite ones that helped me the most.
ocaml :
*Introduction to ocaml
Using Understand and unraveling ocaml: practice to theory and vice versa
*Developing Applications using Ocaml - O'Reilly
The Objective Caml System - Official Manual
A Concise Introduction to Objective Caml
Practical Ocaml
Haskell :
Explore functional programming with Haskell
*Real World Haskell
*Total Functional Programming
For C#:
CLR via C#
C# in Depth
For C++, I suggest Accelerated C++ by Koenig and Moo as a beginning text, though I don't know how it would be for an absolute novice. It focuses on using the STL right away, which makes getting things done much easier.
Haskell:
O'Reilly Book:
Real World Haskell, a great tutorial-oriented book on Haskell, available online and in print.
My favorite general, less academic online tutorials:
The Haskell wikibook which contains all of the excellent Yet Another Haskell Tutorial. (This tutorial helps with specifics of setting up a Haskell distro and running example programs, for example.)
Learn you a Haskell for Great Good, in the spirit of Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby but more to the point.
Write yourself a Scheme in 48 hours. Get your hands dirty learning Haskell with a real project.
Books on Functional Programming with Haskell:
Lambda calculus, combinators, more theoretical, but in a very down to earth manner: Davie's Introduction to Functional Programming Systems Using Haskell
Laziness and program correctness, thinking functionally: Bird's Introduction to Functional Programming Using Haskell
Effective Java is a must but I recommend being comfortable with Java first to fully understand the examples.
Ruby
The Free Ruby on Rails Training Online Course by Sang Shin Isn't too bad. It also has a decent amount of further reading links on each subject in the course
I'd add Bruce Eckel's programming books:
Thinking in Java (print version: 4th edition; 3rd. ed. is online: http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/)
Thinking in C++ (2nd ed, freely available online: http://mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html
In general, his "Books" page (http://mindview.net/Books/) is a good resource. The freely availabe books can also be found at http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/eckel/
Can't believe nobody has mentioned the Perl Best Practices. There's also a Twitter feed that delivers one PBP per day.
I learned Perl from Robert's Perl Tutorial, which I recommend, but it hasn't been updated since 1999. A newer recommended tutorial is Steve's Perl Tutorial.
For web development with Perl, the clear winner is Catalyst, and the Catalyst wiki is the starting point for learning.
For Lisp and Scheme (hell, functional programming in general), there are few things that provide a more solid foundation than The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer. Both provide a very simple and intuitive introduction to both Scheme and functional programming that proves far simpler for new students or hobbyists than any of the typical volumes that rub off like a nonfiction rendition of War & Peace.
Once they've moved beyond the Schemer series, SICP and On Lisp are both fantastic choices.
check out the programming section of wikibooks
Many of them are fully formed, and quite a few have more advanced sections (which are in varying states of completion) on specific functionality.
also, w3 schools has a great php tutorial and reference section
their html and css sections are good for reference too.
C++
Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel
C++ Coding Standards by Herb Sutter & Andrei Alexandrescu
The first one is good for beginners and the second one requires more advanced level in C++.
C - The C Programming Language - Obviously I had to reference K&R, one of the best programming books out there full stop.
C++ - Accelerated C++ - This clear, well written introduction to C++ goes straight to using the STL and gives nice, clear, practical examples. Lives up to its name.
C# - Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform - Bit of a mouthful but wonderfully written and huge depth.
F# - Expert F# - Designed to take experienced programmers from zero to expert in F#. Very well written, one of the author's invented F# so you can't go far wrong!
Scheme - The Little Schemer - Really unique approach to teaching a programming language done really well.
Ruby - Programming Ruby - Affectionately known as the 'pick axe' book, this is THE defacto introduction to Ruby. Very well written, clear and detailed.
For Javascript:
Javascript: The Definitive Guide
Pro Javascript Techniques
For PHP:
PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice
For OO design & programming, patterns:
Object-Oriented Software Construction (a bible, maybe the Head First OO would be nice, I don't know it)
Head First Design Patterns (I so love this book)
Design Patterns
For Refactoring:
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Working Effectively with Legacy Code
For SQL/MySQL:
Joe Celko: Tree and Hierarchies in SQL (only on a specific subject, but I found it interesting)
Pro MySQL
C Primer Plus, 5th Edition - The C book to get if you're learning C without any prior programming experience. It's a personal favorite of mine as I learned to program from this book. It has all the qualities a beginner friendly book should have:
Doesn't assume any prior exposure to programming
Enjoyable to read (without becoming annoying like For Dummies /
Doesn't oversimplify
Let's not forget Head First Java, which could be considered the essential first step in this language or maybe the step after the online tutorials by Sun. It's great for the purpose of grasping the language concisely, while adding a bit of fun, serving as a stepping stone for the more in-depth books already mentioned.
Sedgewick offers great series on Algorithms which are a must-have if you find Knuth's books to be too in-depth. Knuth aside, Sedgewick brings a solid approach to the field and he offers his books in C, C++ and Java. The C++ books could be used backwardly on C since he doesn't make a very large distinction between the two languages in his presentation.
Whenever I'm working on C, C:A Reference Manual, by Harbison and Steele, goes with me everywhere. It's concise and efficient while being extremely thorough making it priceless(to me anyways).
Languages aside, and if this thread is to become a go-to for references in which I think it's heading that way due to the number of solid contributions, please include Mastering Regular Expressions, for reasons I think most of us are aware of... some would also say that regex can be considered a language in its own right. Further, its usefulness in a wide array of languages makes it invaluable.
Common Lisp
For a good reference of CL check out Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition
For Objective C:
Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX - Third Edition
Aaron Hillegass
Published by Addison Wesley
Programming in Objective C,
Stephen G Kochan,
Head First Javascript is a good intro to JS for beginning programmers - it creatively explains basic programming concepts using JS syntax. The Head First series is based on researched techniques for helping you learn and remember new information. They have you do a lot of exercises and puzzles which might seem juvenile, but really help cement the knowledge in your brain.
One exercise I really liked was after they explained data types, they show a picture of a city street and say "label all the data types you can find in this picture." So the blinker on a car is a boolean, the sign on the store is a string, and the address is a number. That helped me get the idea of how to translate real information into a program.
Based only on this book, I'd say the Head First series is a great way to learn something the first time, but the story-like format they have would make them difficult to use as references.
The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton
The Ruby Way cover http://rubyhacker.com/trw2cover.gif
Python: http://diveintopython.net/
JS: a re-introduction to JavaScript is the introduction to the language (not the browser specifics) for programmers. Don't know a good tutorial on JS in browser.
Great idea by the way!
Given recent developments I think it's important to include the recent explosion of free online course offerings from universities and private companies. The new boston is a tutorial site i've always used for numerous languages for years, great beginner point.
http://www.udacity.com/
https://www.coursera.org/
http://www.coursehero.org/
http://www.codecademy.com/
http://mitx.mit.edu/
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://thenewboston.org/
I second Kristopher's recommendation of K&R for C.
I've found the "Essential Actionscript 2.0" book quite useful for AS coding (there's an AS3 version out now I believe).
I've found that having real books to thumb through is more helpful than an online reference in some cases. Not really sure why though.
hmm, I don't know if I would say that online materials are useless, but I do agree that there is something about books. Maybe they are better written, or maybe it is the act of forking over $50 that makes you more inclined to study the material.
Either way, I agree that books should be part of this question. If anyone has any suggestions for books for languages I will edit the post with the best suggestions.
The reference you have listed for Ruby is for Ruby on Rails. While still ruby deep down, it is definitely not a place to start for people wanting to learn Ruby.
For Ruby tutorials, I would suggest Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby as a great starting point for anyone interested in the language.
If you would want to get into more detail, I would recommend the book Programming Ruby, which has become the standard for all things Ruby. The third edition is currently being written, highlighting Ruby 1.9 features, so I would hold off for a while if anyone is considering buying this book.
For J2EE you have a very comprehensive tutorial at:
http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/tutorial/doc/
For Java, I highly recommend Core Java. It's a large tome (or two large tomes), but I've found it to be one of the best references on Java I've read.
I know this is a cross post from here... but, I think one of the best Java books is Java Concurrency in Practice by Brian Goetz. A rather advanced book - but, it will wear well on your concurrent code and Java development in general.
The defacto standard for learning Grails is the excellent Getting Started with Grails by Jason Rudolph. You can debate whether it is an online tutorial or a book since it can be purchased but is available as a free download. There are more "real" books being published and I recommend Beginning Groovy and Grails.
C#
C# to the Point by Hanspeter Mössenböck. On a mere 200 pages he explains C# in astonishing depth, focusing on underlying concepts and concise examples rather than hand waving and Visual Studio screenshots.
For additional information on specific language features, check the C# language specification ECMA-334.
Framework Design Guidelines, a book by Krzysztof Cwalina and Brad Abrams from Microsoft, provides further insight into the main design decisions behind the .NET library.