[plt-scheme] on which programming languages best to spend your time?

>>

Hello Sigrid.

I have tested a lot of languages ( a lot !!! ), Im a C/C++ programmer  
and I was looking for very productive, fast, multiplatform, whith gui  
library language. And settle for a while with python and ruby but they  
dont have a native compiler and I dont like that, then I have tested  
Haskell but I really dont like lazziness (IMHO Its more trouble than  
benefits), jump to ocaml but Ocaml doesnt have a consistent  
multiplatform gui library (Labltk open an ugly shell in OSX, Lablgtk  
is bytecode in Windows and the Graphics library use X on osx and dont  
like it), then I had tested MLTon (no gui and compilation times are  
very long), SMLNY (use a VM) , Alice (Use VM) and others ML but they  
dont have a really active comunity, well at this point I was tested a  
lot of functional languages and dont interesting in test imperative  
ones or any .NET derivates like Mono because of it syntax (imho ugly)   
and read this <http://www.podval.org/~sds/ocaml-sucks.html> and this <http://www.podval.org/~sds/tool.html 
 >,  and begin looking for lisp but lisp implementations are  
commercials at very high prizes, the only one is SBCL but doesnt have  
a gui library (gui is very important for me) then I read in somewhere  
that scheme is a dialect to lisp without the bloated features of lisp  
and come to Plt-Scheme that is a solid rock scheme implementation,  
there are also other scheme compilers but no gui. I look at clojure  
also but I really dont like JVM (sssslllloooowwww). Maybe java with  
gcj make the trick but cant really found a way to native compile swt  
on osx (GCJ is lack of user documentation and tutorials). If you like  
JVM you can try also Scala (beauty syntax). In summary : I was looking  
a multiplatform gui language for fun programming and get Plt-Scheme  
the only drawback for my expectatives is that it not produce complete  
native code but I can live with the JIT :-), and also like from Plt- 
Scheme the following:

1- Very great comunity.
2- Write once and compile and deploy everywhere (no dependences  
headaches).
3- Server and client applications.
4- Database access.
5- Elegant syntax (with a atractive weirdness of parenthesis :-).
6- Exelent gui library.
7- Network library.
8- Web server ready to use.
9- Its fun write programs in Scheme.


In the other side I tell you that I use scheme for fun but in my work  
I use ruby, php and Adobe air.


Best regards





>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'd like to get some advice/opinions about on which programming  
>> languages to spend my (spare) time. At work it's basically legacy  
>> Java (and a bit of C++) code I'm working on, so I've only 1 hour  
>> (max) per day for the languages I really want to learn.
>>
>> [In fact I'm a career changer who made her way into software  
>> development quite recently and in a totally autodidactic way, so  
>> first I had to learn Java and in fact my bad conscience keeps  
>> telling me that for professional reasons I should dedicate some  
>> time to Java too, but it seems I'm mostly ending up doing scheme in  
>> the evening anyway ...]
>>
>> Following Java, I started scheme as a consequence of being infected  
>> by the "SICP virus".
>>
>> Regarding scheme implementations, I do not even ask which one to  
>> use after discovering this mailing list - it is incredibly  
>> inspiring, and at the same time people are so helpful... so no  
>> doubt, it's PLT scheme among all choices.
>>
>> BUT- I'm constantly tempted to start Haskell in parallel (and  
>> especially right now, with "Real World Haskell" published), and  
>> also there's Clojure recommended to me. I'm right now reading the  
>> new book on Clojure to at least know something theoretically; but  
>> though I can find some time to read books it's really just 1 hour  
>> max a day I have for experimenting / learning with the computer  
>> switched on.
>>
>> So I'm constantly unsure how to employ this time.
>> First, it would make sense to constantly proceed with scheme, in  
>> order to be able to perform real-world tasks with it, and also to  
>> some day perhaps be able to contribute to a PLT project, which I'd  
>> very much like to do.
>> [At the moment, the scheme activity I'm doing is trying out some  
>> interpreters from PLAI - first, having read SICP before, I was so  
>> hubristic that I wanted to "just quickly read through this" but  
>> then I recognized that I would only understand and learn things by  
>> really using the code, and in the meantime I'm totally enthusiastic  
>> about PLAI. Really, it's a fantastic book, for example, I've tried  
>> quite some texts to understand continuations but none have helped  
>> me so much as the PLAI chapters!]
>>
>> Second, I wonder if for career reasons I should learn Clojure (I'll  
>> certainly never find a job where I can use scheme, but who knows  
>> what will happen with Clojure in the Java world)...
>>
>> And third, there's the Haskell temptation...
>>
>> I'd be very interested in your opinions...
>>
>> Cheers
>> Sigrid