Least favourite programming language?

towel401 · 12-01-2009 06:24PM #1

so which language do you hate the most? i'd have to say JavaScript. Its slow, restrictive, inconsistent, overused and really just a pain in the arse to work with.

I tried to learn it before but didn't get too far. back in the good old days i would use VBscript for some things instead, now that was a real craptastic language much like the thing it was based on. i remember how VB projects would just start to crash randomly / not compile once they got past a certain size

Ginger · 12-01-2009 07:40PM

Personally I dont like PHP.. just find it a bit mish mash at times.. but hey thats me..

bambam · 12-01-2009 08:25PM

toss up between LISP and RPG

IRLConor · 12-01-2009 08:34PM

?- dislikes(prolog).  
Yes

Vaguely interesting language but it didn't seem particularly practical when I used it in college. I'm sure it's great in its niche but you wouldn't catch me dead writing a full-size app in it.

Civilian_Target · 12-01-2009 11:18PM

Up yours - Prolog is amazing. What other language lets you write a compiler in less than 200 lines.

Personally, I agree with the original poster. Javascript is pants. Nothing is consistent, and nothing is checked. Finally with tools like Aptana and Firebag, it's becoming usable...

Other contenders of hate include all FORTRANs less than 90 (Column dependancy == bad), MSSQL (its sort of like other SQLs, but not, and thus more confusing) and Semmle (just doesn't make sense).

CreepingDeath · 12-01-2009 11:49PM

Fortran was shite.

COBOL was basically programming for retards.
Far too high level for anything decent except database work.

Lisp and Prolog were irritating and only had a very narrow range of applications.

Best languages, Java, C++, assembly.

IRLConor · 13-01-2009 12:20AM

Civilian_Target wrote: »

Up yours - Prolog is amazing. What other language lets you write a compiler in less than 200 lines.

A compiler for what language? You can make a BF compiler less than 200 bytes but it doesn't mean it's useful. I'd bet there are plenty of languages you can write a compiler for in less than 200 lines of Perl/Python.

Prolog is pretty useful in its niche, but any language that requires recursion to do iteration needs a good kick up the arse.

Placebo · 13-01-2009 09:45AM

assembly language
and J

i love PHP, id marry it. It does everything in life.

hobochris · 13-01-2009 09:48AM

I hate vb with a passion, so much so I don't really consider it a proper language + don't consider any programmer that hangs their hat on vb to be a real programmer to be their more like graphic designers: can make it look pretty but can't really do much else.

I love: java,c++.

java for its vast flexibility and api's and c++ for its raw power.

CreepingDeath · 13-01-2009 09:49AM

Placebo wrote: »

assembly language

:eek:

Without assembly language there would be nothing.
You young folk don't know the joys of hand-crafting an assembly routine to replace a C / C++ routine and execute 20+ times faster.

MOH · 13-01-2009 12:31PM

Not a language, but I hated working with lex and yacc before.

toiletduck · 13-01-2009 12:37PM

Really didn't like working with VBScript.

thebaldsoprano · 13-01-2009 12:44PM

Not really a language, but I hate writing and debugging Makefiles...

neil_hosey · 13-01-2009 01:47PM

Placebo wrote: »

assembly language
and J

i love PHP, id marry it. It does everything in life.

dont lie you loved J :P

was it not the lecturer???

amen · 13-01-2009 01:51PM

not really a language but I used to hate writing JCL for IBM mainframes

jusk · 13-01-2009 01:55PM

Another vote for Lisp here. The only good thing about Lisp is that you can say it with a lisp and it sounds funny.

I haven't programmed in years, but that awful jumble of brackets wasted a lot of my time during my final year of college, when I was forced to do my major project in bloody Lisp. It was a pretty bad project, if I remember correctly.

nialo · 13-01-2009 04:05PM

VB! hate vb and always seem to end up supporting legacy sh1t in it.

not a fan of Lisp either.

charlesD · 13-01-2009 05:06PM

For me VB would probably be my least favorite language.

so which language do you hate the most? i'd have to say JavaScript.

I think for the service it provides, Javascript works fairly well. In regards to it being restrictive, I think this is due to its nature.

It is not meant to be a full programming language, but rather a web tool. I would not go so far as to say it is my favorite, but I think it does a fairly good job at what it is designed for.

Civilian_Target · 13-01-2009 07:27PM

IRLConor wrote: »

A compiler for what language?

Why a Prolog compiler of course

You can make a BF compiler less than 200 bytes but it doesn't mean it's useful. I'd bet there are plenty of languages you can write a compiler for in less than 200 lines of Perl/Python.

Prolog is pretty useful in its niche, but any language that requires recursion to do iteration needs a good kick up the arse.

Perl's OK, and Python's great, so Prolog's in good company here.

Seriously, learn Prolog, really learn it, learn how to use it (or any similar language, like Lisp or Scheme) and you will never program the same way again. It will change the way you think about all languages. The Little Schemer is still, if you ask me, one of the best programming books out there.

Eitherway, I revoke my previous most hated language in place of BPEL.
By far the most arkward, horrible, convoluted "language" I've ever had to use.

DeJaMo · 13-01-2009 08:24PM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Fortran was shite.

COBOL was basically programming for retards.
Far too high level for anything decent except database work.

Lisp and Prolog were irritating and only had a very narrow range of applications.

Best languages, Java, C++, assembly.

Agree with you there...COBOL is a fisher price language...

javascript and vbscript don't count

stephenlane80 · 15-01-2009 04:56PM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

:eek:

Without assembly language there would be nothing.
You young folk don't know the joys of hand-crafting an assembly routine to replace a C / C++ routine and execute 20+ times faster.

:D

grahamor · 16-01-2009 01:13PM

toiletduck wrote: »

Really didn't like working with VBScript.

+1

Any language with VB in it is nasty, could never get used to that syntax

Placebo · 16-01-2009 02:18PM

only thing crap about javascript is not being able to pass variable to php etc, other than that its amazing for what it is, i.e JQUERY !!!!! revolutionary !

Hobbes · 16-01-2009 05:15PM

for me this is kind of a hard question. Most of the development pain comes from the IDE you have to use.

So for example when I had to write struts stuff using just the text files I found it a pain to do.

There was also this propierty language I had to work on for specialised machinary. The machine in question was built in the 70's so still had the tape reels and everything had to be typed in hex into the system on the keyboard (no way to save on the machine itself). While you could use the keyboard to do stuff I gave up and just wrote an app that converted a dummy language I made into the hex code which in turn was put onto the tape.

The annoyance was if there was any kind of mistake you had to wait 10-15mins for the machine to read in the tape then barf a number back which you then had to look up huge manuals to find out what the number meant.

I ended up having to write an app which would check the code before hand and give me the general output I would expect (basically everything the machine did except the mechnical part).

you youngsters have it too easy these days.

Malice · 16-01-2009 05:25PM

In terms of languages that have caused me the most heartache it's a toss-up between COBOL and Lisp. Both drove me up the walls in college.

Bluefrog · 16-01-2009 07:21PM

From a web developer point of view I reckon JavaScript is getting a bit of a bad rap here when really the lack of uniformity and poor implementations in web browsers is the real culprit. Also the lack of any decent debugging until Firebug didn't help with the love.

As for PHP I think a lot of the 'mess' involved comes from implementations that don't use good OOP. With the latest version there is really no excuse for that now. PHP definitely fills a niche where ASP.NET would be overkill and I have run into some very annoying issues with ASP.NET with lack of backward compatibility. ASP.NET is a framework rather than a language per sae and frameworks by their nature can make getting simple things done very complicated even though they may shine at more complex tasks.

For most annoying and useless I'd agree with the poster who mentioned VBcript - it wasn't enough they muddied the waters with JScript.

I've been playing round with Python over the past month or two and I'm really liking it a lot - every programmer should have it in their warchest for getting the jobs done that fall between other languages.

.Bob · 17-01-2009 12:53AM

everyone hates vb eh :P i got really deep into vb.net before i was told i was wasting my time, the code is so inneficient and requires a mountain of framework, but still if i need a program made quick i do it in vb since its my best language, moving onto java now though, since it runs win, unix, or mac :cool:

radioactiveman · 17-01-2009 11:52AM

By a country mile, COBOL
hape of shíte

Sheeps · 30-11-2009 08:21PM

bumping this thread to express my hatred for prolog

CuLT · 30-11-2009 09:25PM

Placebo wrote: »

only thing crap about javascript is not being able to pass variable to php etc, other than that its amazing for what it is, i.e JQUERY !!!!! revolutionary !

Adding to bump to ask what the hell this quote even means?

Javascript is an excellent language for what it is; for it's implementation of anonymous functions it has my love.

PHP can be written well; it's a weird, organically evolved language and most of the problems people complain about stem from the plethora of badly written code out there. PHP allows you to write nice code as much as it allows you to make an absolute dogs dinner of it. Most importantly it's ubiquitous - if you know PHP well you've got quite a portable skill even if it's nearly the only thing you know well.

Malice · 30-11-2009 09:48PM

CuLT wrote: »

Adding to bump to ask what the hell this quote even means?

The second part is easy, they were expressing their liking for JQuery. As for the first part maybe Placebo needs to understand the difference between client-side and server-side code?

PhantomBeaker · 01-12-2009 12:14AM

In terms of the languages I work with on a regular basis, ksh93 scripts on Solaris. Or Expect (but that's really TCL afaicr).

ksh93 because it lulls you into a false sense of security then springs something absolutely developmentally challenged at you. Expect because the chances of the script working from one version (even minor versions) of expect to another are practically nil.

mcmoustache · 01-12-2009 12:48AM

First, Javascript. It's everywhere and overused. I was working on a project a few years ago and inherited the work of a colleague who had left. I found js files that were up to 2000 lines long for validating a text field against some rules and a database. He reinvented the wheel multiple times. I suppose that's not really the fault of javascript but having to maintain that has left a sour taste in my mouth since.

I also hate BASIC variants. I work with VAX BASIC, VB6 and VB.Net regularly and they remind me of those "tills" that the doctors had in Idiocracy with the simple pictures. It just doesn't feel right.

And another thing.....GOTO. I wish people would try to avoid it. It's OK for error trapping but it I don't think it was ever intended as a conditional statement. I never use it myself but trying to follow code with too many GOTOs is just a head-fcuk.

Sparks · 01-12-2009 12:56AM

Hands down, no contest, C++.

No consistent ABI of any kind, inconsistent implementations of so-called 'standard' features for things like templates, still lets you shoot off your own foot despite claiming to be safer than C, and has a massive amount of language bloat compared to other languages that had the same goal (adding OO programming support to C) - look at the amount of new language features in ObjC for comparison.

I mean, I like OOP, but not with C++. C++ is to OOP what Angel Delight is to a good pastry chef.

hobochris · 01-12-2009 09:15AM

VB... It bores me to tears, no challenge what so ever, everything is to easy.

Microsoft should have marketed it "VB, for those that can't".

Naikon · 21-12-2009 06:11PM

Tough one, but I would have to say Java is my least.
It seems to be very verbose in it's implementation.

The standard API is also insanely large. Probably because
of backwards compat, but there are so many ways of doing
the same task if you actually sit down and have a read.

I prefer small consistant tools and interfaces. You could
nearly keep the (albeit small) C standard API in your head.
Remembering exact parameters would not be easy though.

Write once, run anywhere - If you keep the code base
agnostic and not use MS libraries, this should not be
too much of a problem depending on the application.

I am no ninja developer, but any code I do write tends
to pretty portable by default. A recompile should be the
last step. ELF binaries are your friend.

Apparently, the equality operators only compares references
and not the actual values contained? Convention slashing.

You can't even reference a java source file through the
filesystem unless you are working in the same dir as the
file, or set a bunch of java specific variables.

Java debugging is a bit dodgy too and please don't try to strace
a java process. It will induce tear shredding. I assure you this.

Naikon · 21-12-2009 06:36PM

Civilian_Target wrote: »

MSSQL (its sort of like other SQLs, but not, and thus more confusing)

All Microsoft products are designed to not work 100%
with industry adopted open standards. Lock in tactic.

Not a huge fan of SQL myself, but it's uber important
for any type of relational database. If you want to actually
like a particualar tool, avoid Microsofts implementation:pac:

I may come across as high and mighty by saying this, but you
should try to boycott any microsoft product forced upon you.

Hellm0 · 21-12-2009 06:54PM

In terms of syntax, Perl. Practically unreadable.

That aside, I actually enjoy working with most languages. The only reason I come to hate them is usually because of improper implementation, by myself or others. Best tool for the job is the one that should be used and it is the problem/solution I find interesting, not the elegance of the tool.

dlofnep · 21-12-2009 06:57PM

Visual basic. What a pile of bloated, shíte. Worst for me anyone. Studied it for 6 months and got the Visual Basic MCP a few years ago. Couldn't code anything in it now and wouldn't want to.

I've been dabbling with assembly on a commodore 64 as of late for the craic. Low-level programming is really tough, but interesting. My only other experience is with Java, C++ and PHP. I had a quick look at ruby which was interesting.

Hellm0 · 21-12-2009 07:11PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Visual basic. What a pile of bloated, shíte. Worst for me anyone. Studied it for 6 months and got the Visual Basic MCP a few years ago. Couldn't code anything in it now and wouldn't want to.

I've been dabbling with assembly on a commodore 64 as of late for the craic. Low-level programming is really tough, but interesting. My only other experience is with Java, C++ and PHP. I had a quick look at ruby which was interesting.

SINNER!

Had I my way I'd flog those 37 signals wimps, bunch of self-aggrandizing hipsters.

dlofnep · 21-12-2009 07:13PM

Hellm0 wrote: »

SINNER!

Had I my way I'd flog those 37 signals wimps, bunch of self-aggrandizing hipsters.

LOL

Gotta expand your horizons. Different levels for different things! Most of the ruby I looked at was only for it's web framework.

Hellm0 · 21-12-2009 07:19PM

dlofnep wrote: »

LOL

Gotta expand your horizons. Different levels for different things! Most of the ruby I looked at was only for it's web framework.

Hehe I've worked in design shops where Ruby on Rails was adopted a little too quickly, to the detriment of established technologies like .NET. Let's just say I have developed a true hatred for progressive techno-hipsters who throw around phrases like MVC without knowing what it means but who assume it justifies the use of RoR over a more suitable candidate.

dlofnep · 21-12-2009 07:21PM

Hellm0 wrote: »

Hehe I've worked in design shops where Ruby on Rails was adopted a little too quickly, to the detriment of established technologies like .NET. Let's just say I have developed a true hatred for progressive techno-hipsters who throw around phrases like MVC without knowing what it means but who assume it justifies the use of RoR over a more suitable candidate.

Well, I've experience with JSP prior to it - But I like to keep current.

Hellm0 · 21-12-2009 07:31PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Well, I've experience with JSP prior to it - But I like to keep current.

Nothing wrong with that, keep up the good work:)

Should look into Flex, looks to be quite in demand.

dlofnep · 21-12-2009 07:45PM

Might do when I've a spare minute

Thanks

LowOdour · 21-12-2009 10:14PM

JavaScript aint that bad, but the way its implemented can be.

I dare somebody to start working with Ext JS. Javascript based....but an absolute horror to work with

Calina · 22-12-2009 03:43PM

Hellm0 wrote: »

.... phrases like MVC ....

MoVe Character?

I love this discussion. I am not a fan of SQL in any shape or form but applaud my DBA colleagues who know their stuff. I'm not familiar with a lot of other things; but from my experience, pretty much every single language can be mangled by someone.

E39MSport · 22-12-2009 04:58PM

Least favourite programming language?

The language for programming women. Still can't get the hang of it. Thinking about getting a new application server to compile it on. A nice new one with Bigger 'disks' and less computing power....

Herbal Deity · 22-12-2009 05:29PM

Java.

It's overtly verbose, bloated and simplified to the point of being extremely limiting. It always feels like you're using a language designed for people who don't understand basic computing concepts. It's only saving grace is the support and extensive range of apis.

remus808 · 22-12-2009 10:08PM

Herbal Deity wrote: »

Java.

It's overtly verbose, bloated and simplified to the point of being extremely limiting. It always feels like you're using a language designed for people who don't understand basic computing concepts.

Care to elaborate?

Excluding pointers, how is Java any less powerful than any of the other common OO languages?

lmimmfn · 23-12-2009 12:39AM

Herbal Deity wrote: »

Java.

It's overtly verbose, bloated and simplified to the point of being extremely limiting. It always feels like you're using a language designed for people who don't understand basic computing concepts. It's only saving grace is the support and extensive range of apis.

on the contrary, java's ease of use simplifies software design in general, RSA/Eclipse UML->java and back again is a cinch. Its not perfect, but the introduction of generics was a fantastic move by Sun and long overdue if you ask me, also the removal of multiple inheritence from C++ was a very smart move by Sun. The language should be about design rather than getting bogged down in semantics or core dumps( which java can get of corse if youre using jni or the jvm itself crashes ) or whatever. The platform independence is also a godsend if your target platform is Solaris but youre developing on PC.

Noobs will abuse it of course, but any language can be abused.

Personally i hate Visual Basic, now thats oversimplified( powerful but i personally dont like the code base that you end up with maintaining ).

Least favourite programming language?

Comments