I wanna Learn a Language

I'm in college for system development. I'm in my second semester. I do not start any programming classes until at least next fall. I would like to start teaching myself a language to make myself more marketable. I'm going to a community college, they teach Java, HTML, CSS, Visual Basic, and ASP. Javascript may be in there too - not 100% sure. My schedule has a class named advanced web development tools - I know it uses Joomla and Wordpress as I've heard others talking about it. My question is: What is another language to learn by my self that would help market me. Especially in an area with limited jobs as is let alone technology jobs - most places want 15 years experience and a Bachelor degree. So I want to learn some other stuff to help play in my favor.

Thanks

reply to post by wwe9112


Learn PHP. It's the most versatile web based language IMO. Also, both Joomla and Wordpress are built on PHP. It's open source and easy to configure. It's also easy to integrate with both MySQL and MSSQL for data driven apps (like Joomla and WP).

Back in the '80s, I learned machine language. It helped me more than anything.

reply to post by wwe9112


As you are an American, you could learn to speak "Proper English"

Only jesting

reply to post by wwe9112


www.codecademy.com...
Here's a nice free site, the limits, you decide?
Being able to whip up a page is worth some $'s.

reply to post by wwe9112


That's a complicated question. If you want to get into web development, definitely learn HTML, PHP, and MySQL. With just those 3 languages you can build pretty complicated websites. CSS and Javascript add additional aesthetics and functionality.

If you want to go more into machine programming languages, I'd say start out with C++ or Python. Those seem to me the most common languages used for building applications and games.

Here is a great beginning tutorial.

For most programming/scripting languages the concepts are all the same. The only thing that changes is the syntax in which it is written.

reply to post by wwe9112


Start with learning semantic markup in HTML then learn CSS and then PHP/MYSQL.

reply to post by wwe9112


To piggy back on this thread...

I've been in the IT consulting business for 5+ years now (still young, but a little older then you). Learn everything you can about SDN, Software Defined Networking. Think VMware but for your Network. Making your WAN run like your LAN. This is the "buzz" word that is capturing everyone's attention today, but very few companies actually have a 'go to' product for the market place, most are still trying to develop. Right now it's a roughly a $1.8 billion business, but within 3 years it's supposed to jump up to $18-25 billion. My company is an elite partner of Adara Networks who's been doing SDN for 13 years, but for the DoD and the products were recently declassified and made for corporate use.

SDN is the future, the future is here now. You want to be marketable, learn about this inside and out, because EVERY company will be targeting this product for their own internal environment. And there's a reason why VMware, Cisco, and many other companies are scrambling now to put together a SDN solution for the marketplace.

software development is generally seen as 3 levels of fashion ability

1st the old school still running cobol/fortran and since it works they aint going to fix it and since its the focal point of a trillion dollars worth of transactions a day they aint risking anyone messing with it without good need

the 2nd those who are running anything not considered fashionable by the university, the main stuff that talks to the stuff thats still ran via the 1st level

the 3rd level is normally seen as this week fashion at the uni (aka the course leader has a book on it)

reply to post by wwe9112


Games are fun to play, but WAY more fun to make. I suggest that you start learning JavaScript and HTML 5 and make a game with the HTML 5 canvas element. You will learn a lot, and have fun at the same time. Be warned though, It's very challenging to program games. I suggest you start with something simple like Pong and work your way up. Good luck.

Thanks everyone i do appreciate each and every response, and will take them into consideration deeply. I did start to learn C#, as I was told it's in high demand. I'm using Microsofts IDE for the language.

My Uncle has a business, and I decided my first project would be a simple calculator to calculate his clients costs each month. That's my goal - although long-term I would actually like to develop some text-based tycoon games much like Adam Rylands TEW series. I know that's a long way out - but a goal.

I do know basic HTML, and CSS. The couses I will be taking in college goes more into detail. Along with what I assume PHP and such. I was told the final project for that series is to develop a theme for Wordpress and Joomla - one would assume that you would need to know all three for that.

Any tips on where to expand on C# without buying a book? Maybe a Youtube series? Again, I am using Visual Studio 2012 provided by my college. I actually can get 2013 too, but for whatever reason, decided to download the 2012 version lol.