What is the best language to learn?

General
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I’m asking this question because I haven’t mastered a singular language completely. I know MOST of HTML/CSS and I’ve picked up little things from Node.js and stuff. I want to completely master a language (not HTML/CSS).

I think the best language should be

  • versatile (It can start a web server, or it can have CLI. Or anything a versatile language can do)
  • easy to understand (not too hard but not too simple like Scratch code)
  • useful (Not too useful because if something is too useful, it’s too hard. There is no point in a language being too useless, though. This is why I don’t want to do Kaboom or something like that: making a game isn’t useful in my opinion)
  • somewhat readable (like a book. HTML is readable, for example.)

EDIT:

  • fast (I think a good language should be very fast (which is why I like fastify instead of express in node.js))

If it meets all (or most) of those, then that language is probably the best language to learn. I really want to know this mystery language and get good at it.

EDIT 2:

I found the best language: Python. Obviously it’s versatile, easy enough, useful, and it looks readable enough. I’ll start with Replit’s Python Tutorial.

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…
You NEED to learn Python sir. It’s the one thing that fits most these requirements lol.

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The most I know Python does is math on CLI and starting servers with flask…

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Looks like you’ve been doing some web development

I highly recommend you continue with node.js. Once you learn node.js, you unlock so many opportunities. The syntax is the same for node.js and web js.

You can then pick up react.js, which all big sites (including replit) use.

It is super versatile, and you can make desktop apps, mobile apps, websites, etc with js
It has simple syntax and don’t listen to people who say it has weird quirks, while it is true there are many programming practices that have beene created to help mitigate this.
It is decently readable, especially because it’s syntax is so similar to many other languages like c#, c/c++, java, etc.

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It has a big machine learning and data science scene as well

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Just wondering, don’t you need to be good with regular JS to start with Node.js? I’ve never needed JS when creating websites because my websites are about content, not interactivity. I’ve seen what Node.js can do (create web servers and apps like chat rooms) but I skipped the lesson on JavaScript on browser.

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Python does everything, maybe not everything fast, but it can do everything.

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you do not, it’s the same syntax, and once you start to make more complex websites guess what

  • nodejs for the backend
  • web js for the frontend
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So: Python is really versatile and useful, you can use it for practically anything, but with all that greatness comes the expense of speed.

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Not at all, they are the same thing, the difference is NodeJS runs natively and brings packages (eg NPM) and a different form of modules, whereas regular JS runs in your browser. If you know JavaScript, you already know most of NodeJS.

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lol package imports are almost the same now if you use es modules

12

Almost, but not quite, it’s good to remember they are different.

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yes. Sometimes it matters, sometimes not.
IF you want performance, you need to pick your poison depending on what you want to so.

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I do want performance speed with the actual language and I do value speed a lot. I’m making an edit…

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If you value speed a lot, the best choice is always C or C++ or a similar lower-level language.

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I thought that C and C++ is a bad language to start with because of how darn useful it is: when I want to create a little program you need so much complex code and BTW can Linux and Mac run C and C++? I think they’re only for Windows Powershell or something.

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Linux and Mac don’t run C you need to compile C into their executable files and run those.
To do that you need to get a compiler. This is why in installation pages you see install for linux, install for mac, etc

have you considered rust? :crab:

It’s a fast language compared to speeds of C/C++ but it has modern features and is similar to JS

only problem is it’s kind of for programmers who have programmed before.

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I don’t count (lol) but why is that?

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Not sure where you get this. A language is not platform specific.
If speed is what you want, C and C++ are your friend as they are old (=tons of resources), easy to learn (but tricky to master) and as fast as it can get.
But again it depends. You want to do messaging and concurrent apps, look at Go.
Want to avoid memory leaks and accept a more difficult language, RUST.

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it has a lot of rules on memory management – there are some things you can do in other languages that you can’t in rust because it’s ‘unsafe’, and since it’s like C/C++ it’s ‘useful’