Help me with deciding to stick to a language

[Bijo]

*sigh*
I've been at it as a kid fooling around (Turbo Pascal, Basic) but never got any further than making silly programs. Then at some point I relearned some of that stuff when going back at it, but stopped at the same point again.
Then learned some Delph and I made some text editor (and I don't even know how the heck I did it).
Then at some point I started learning C and C++. Was going okay, but then the same thing hit me: didn't get far because it was just too tedious, and never made anything interesting.
Then came some Java and C#. They looked alike iirc, but I didn't make anything good with that either.

Now I'm thinking of starting to pick up C++ once again and finally KEEP GOING until I can go no more (as far as I have time for it of course). It was also the one I stayed with the most even if I made crap!

So... I come to you to ask you this: what is the best, most versatile, general-purpose, practical, flexible, and easy-to-learn programming language existing which is like THE language? I know that certain languages can be used for certain purposes, but I want to know one very well, with which I would be able to do a lot.

Programming was always a thorn in the side for some reason -- an obstacle that I've not yet overcome, and I MUST! I really want to program because it's another thing on the challenge list to beat!

[Blodrast]

Apparently, Python is picking up a lot of votes these days. Never used it myself.
I'm still not sure what your goal is, though, and it seems to me like that makes all the difference in the world.

If it is to write some useful/interesting/challenging code, well, that has nothing to do with the language - it has to do with your ideas and inspiration (assuming you're doing this for fun, rather than as being forced to do it for work/school).
Think of something that meets your criteria for interesting/useful/challenging, and then we can talk. Imo, certain things are _really_ difficult to do in certain languages, so it makes some sense to pick a language _after_ you've decided what you'd like to do.
Imo, choosing a language that doesn't allow certain constructs you know you'll need is just needlessly handicapping yourself rather than a proper challenge. (If that was all you wanted, just pick some pseudo-useless language from 30 years ago, and I'll bet it'll be hell to write any decent application in it).

Perl may also be a reasonable alternative...
Otherwise, I guess you need to go with the standard C variant or Java...

edit: as for knowing one language really well, I dunno, I think you can only accomplish that if you stick with it continuously.

[Bijo]

It's for fun basically, You're probably right about the inspiration thing and such. Thing is, I know I can be creative and have inspiration, it's just that when learning a language and trying to apply it in a decent way that's when all the inspiration and motivation disappear (usually).
I have ideas about what I want to make (useful programs, little games, even if small) but the language barrier is a pain in the ass. When I learn it it's usually more about knowing proper code and style up into detail, rather than making something useful while you learn it. It's important, but demotivating.

I don't know if I'm being clear enough, though :)

I guess I'll go with Perl for the time being. It reminds me of my painful times when having a go at C++, only it looks less painful

[Tamur]

This is definitely a personal choice if you've got no object (sic!) in mind except learning some language very well with no qualifications.

I have a friend who does all his programming in Fortran still because he has no need for anything else. As Blodrast says, what language to use is very project-dependant.

If you're just looking to get used to programming, C++ and Perl aren't good ones to start off with. C++ is extremely powerful and able to do anything, but it's Never used for rapid-development projects because it's tedious and the syntax tends to become convoluted very easily. Perl on the other hand is great fun once you learn the intricacies but it's rather non-standard.

My recommendations would be either C# or Java. I personally can't stand Java but that's just due to years of bad experiences with uncommented .jar files I had to parse myself

Good luck, whatever you decide!

[Bijo]

Hmmm, yes, I've been looking at C# again. If I'm not mistaken it does garbage collection. I assume it has to do with memory management or something, like when you write something you don't have to think about it 'cause it'll take care of it by itself. Would this mean that what you write would always be unoptimized code?

Is C# really a language that'll get a learner to get used to general programming more easily (which is probably my main concern for now)? And what is the best way to get started -- in my case restarted
To install .NET and such I assume.

As for the project thing you mention, I don't want to make anything big or something (yet, or ever(?)). But something small like a text editor to start with, or something creative like a simple RPG seems like something nice to me (though this might be too much already, as it would include graphics, sounds, etc.).

There's also this thing... at one point I wanted and tried to make a simple game, but failed miserably. Actually, it wasn't failure, it was more like not knowing what to do and how to get started. Like you have the idea, but cannot translate this idea into code and make it work.
But then I looked at program code of a simple DOS game or something with few overall global comments and it just hit me vaguely. I "understood" the code in a way, but sure as heck could not make something like that myself.

[Husar]

Java has a garbage collector and that means it collects any objects or data that are not used anymore(i.e. there is no link to them anywhere) and deletes them automatically.