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What Programming Language For Linux Development?

Posted by kdawson on from the let-slip-the-dogs dept.

k33l0r writes "Recently I've been thinking about developing (or learning to develop) for Linux. I'm an IT university student but my degree program focuses almost exclusively on Microsoft tools (Visual Studio, C#, ASP.NET, etc.) which is why I would like to expand my repertoire on my own. Personally I'm quite comfortable in a Linux environment, but have never programmed for it. Over the years I've developed a healthy fear of everything Java and I'm not too sure of what I think of Python's use of indentation to delimit blocks. The question that remains is: what language and tools should I be using?"

2 of 997 comments (clear)

  1. How much do you want to learn? by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 5, Informative

    C/C++, C#, Objective-C, Java, Python, Perl, [insert language of choice]

    All can be used to do Linux development.

    KDE, stick to C++ and Python.

    Gnome, stick to C and C# and Python.

    GNUStep, stick to Objective-C

    Java and Perl and any other language you choose can be used as well, but the desktop environment support for them is little to non-existent, depending on the language.

  2. This is all true however... by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... it is also pertinent to note here that the GNU standards document, section 3.1: "Which Languages to Use" strongly advises plain old C for both performance and absolute maximum cross-platform compatibility.

    Since operating system and hardware platform independence are both key factors of code re-usability and really what open source software is all about I personally think this is a strong call.

    However the parent post is correct in that application intent trumps all. If you are just writing shell tools you never intend to use outside of Linux then PERL is likely fast enough and probably much easier/faster (bottom line: cheaper) for the average developer to work with.

    If you're writing web software use PHP, but it will make you feel dirty inside.