Ask HN: What is the best technology to learn right now?

What are you looking to do? If you're interested in web development, I highly recommend learning either Ruby and Ruby on Rails, or Python and Django. You do mention that you "want to learn building something from scratch" though, in which case I wouldn't rely on a framework like Rails or Django.

Have you thought at all about Go (http://golang.org)? It's very similar to C with a great concurrency model. It works well for web servers and, for the most part, makes you work from the bottom up.

Either JavaScript (and by extension, Node.js) or a mobile language (Objective-C or Java, pick the one for the phone you have). Python won't solve anything for you that you can't already solve between C or Perl.

While learning that, learn a tool like RabbitMQ.

I'm out of date.

I grew-up with wire-wrap DIP 74LS chips with 5 V logic.

I hooked-up TIP120 power transistors for controlling stepper motors.

I built an 8051 with external RAM and ROM. I programmed it. I made serial port code on the PC end.

------

I got a taste of more modern 2001 microcontrollers. I still got DIP I could wire-wrap. EEPROM, pretty fancy.

I dealt with $2.00 or less chips. I think I sized-down to $1.67 variations in quantities of perhaps 10,000, so it mattered.

In 1993, I made an ISA d-2-a a-2-d computer card for my 486. That was fun.

I'm no longer employable in electrical engineering -- I'm not interested, mostly, partly because I cannot connect my heart's joy -- my operating system -- to hardware. Sad.

Cannot wirewrap, maybe.

I guess you use a premade hobby kit with Linux. Doesn't interest me. I've already scratch all my itches. I thought DSP was neat at one point, then figured-out it's boring, pretty quick, for example.

I'll throw my hat in here for learning Clojure. It's a modern Lisp that runs on the JVM, with a great community and awesome libraries. (For example, https://github.com/Engelberg/instaparse) As others have mentioned, it all comes down to what you really want to do. I use Clojure both professionally (for web development, statistical computing/analytics software, natural language processing) and for fun on a daily basis. It's the only language I've yet to come across in my career that work doesn't make boring. I relish every opportunity I get to code in Clojure, because after solving every problem in it I end up with a DSL (domain specific language) that I can extend and mold to the problem as I learn more about it, and honestly I find that addicting. I can't recommend it enough, even if you just use it for fun occasionally. At worst, you'll have learned a Lisp and can judge its merits for yourself. At best, you'll experience what I have: infatuation that I hope never goes away. It's been about a year now since I first learned it, and I probably code at least 3-4 hours a day in it. My love has not abated in the slightest, it has only increased. Give it a shot, you may like it!

If you want to write modules for Drupal/Joomla, they are written in PHP, which is similar to C. Ruby on Rails is known for being easy-to-use. You should learn Javascript no matter what server side language you choose. Python is a good choice if you also want to do data-analysis or advanced algorithms. I wouldn't bother with Node.js until you are comfortable with Javascript. You can work on Apache without having to learn how to configure it much.

Can't go wrong with JavaScript.

there's nothing called best technology, it depends on several factors and what you want to achieve .

you have mentioned that you have some experience in drupal ,and if you want to stay in the web dev, I suggest you to learn Symfony2 Framework ( PHP) , MySQL ( or any RDBMS ) + JS ( Jquery, Angular etc ).

There isn't any one stack, language or framework that is the best technology to learn.

My suggestion would be to go with any one of many stacks, learn the basics like MVC on server and the client, working with HTTP, writing usable html and css, responsive sites, Working with ORMs, SQL and NoSQL db etc.

Then once you've learnt the basics, learning the another, framework, stack or language becomes quite easy because the basics pretty much remain the same.

In regards to mobile there are only 2 choices either Android Java or iOS Objective-C . Neither one is better than the other right now, So if you own a Mac you can learn either, if you don't, well the choice is obvious. (PS: Windows mobile, BB are okay, I personally don't recommend)

If you are looking for more conclusive help.

Learn node.js if you already know javascript, because you don't need to learn 2 languages while building a site.

But don't limit yourself with that, once you get decent with node, try to do python + django or ruby on rails in the side.

And then you can probably move on to go-lang or a Jvm Language.

Be sure to use at least one SQL and NoSQL db.

PS: (Personal Opinion) For the love of god stop using PHP.

What you want to build should determine what language or platform you should learn to use. What do you want to build?

depends what you will be doing as a job.

It depends what you want to do. Javascript is crucial for anything regarding web development, so if your goal is to master web dev, definitely have a sound foundation in Javascript.

Personally I moved from PHP CMS's (years ago now) straight into Python / Django and loved it, but I still kick myself for never mastering Ruby on Rails, as my experience has lead me to discover there are 5 Rails gigs for every Django gig, and being a Rails dev pays quite well these days.

If you build a solid foundation in Javascript and RoR you open yourself to a ton of opportunities, and you'll be able to adapt pretty quickly to any of the new tech on the horizon

Well, seeing only the title and not the fuller explanation of your question, I would have said: data mining.

I realize now that's not what you were asking for, but you might want to consider it anyway. If you have a PhD in EE, you should have sufficient math skills.

Note that this post is in context of building a web application.

Learning how to build a web application from scratch is not an easy undertaking. Certainly there is the actual task of learning how to program from the ground up that is challenging but I will warn you of the more subtle challenges you will face. Existing packages, libraries, frameworks and more are there to help you but can be a crutch. Understanding the trade-offs of writing your own library verse using a preexisting library is important. The second problem is knowing how to parse information you find online. People learn new things and love to share those things online all the time. Tutorials and screen casts will likely be plentiful, but beware that there may be holes in what you are learning. A fantastic example would be a basic tutorial on storing information to a database--it likely will not show you how to sanitize the data. In my opinion learning how to build solid web applications should then follow a basic formula to overcome these challenges: Learn the basics of web programming, pick up a framework, and then seek knowledge where needed.

Stay away from a framework in the beginning. Rails, Django, and other popular frameworks are absolutely essential tools for building web applications but they abstract a lot of the little things. Not understanding the little things can make debugging tricky. It can also lead to security flaws in your code. A good example of the little things includes parsing form input, interacting with a database, and routing traffic to its intended destination. Having an astute understanding of the building blocks will help you architect, debug, and develop solid web applications.

Once you are comfortable with the basics and could build a complex web application without the help of a framework you are paradoxically ready to use one. I suggest that your first framework be one that is highly popular so you can find tutorials and help as needed. Rails or Django are fantastic to pick up. Since you understand the basics you can then focus on using the best practices that these frameworks declare in their documentation to build a web application that can scale and is secure. You will not need to handle what will now be the mundane task of parsing form input or interacting with the database.

Now that you are comfortable using a framework you can seek more relevant knowledge that is applicable to what you want to do. Perhaps you are hoping to build a web application that shows real time updates for game scores and so you look into advanced AJAX techniques (or web sockets) for feeding the data to the user in a lively manner. Maybe you want to tackle something truly challenging such as converting m4a formatted files into mp3 formatted files. Programming really gets fun once you start tackling challenges that aren't quite as well documented. From here you will find the material more advanced, but with a solid understanding of the basics and a good framework to keep the basics out of your way you will be able to commit the mental capacity required to tackle the more challenging tasks.

In the end my advice is to have fun and work hard. Don't skip the basics, but understand that they are not the end point in programming. It is similar to learning calculus in mathematics. If you do not have a solid understanding of algebra you will struggle more than you need to. Build trivial things. Re-invent the wheel. This is how to best learn.

Best of luck!

TLDR: Pick a language, learn it, and then find a relevant framework and learn how to wield it.

Elasticsearch. The things you can do with it are pretty remarkable, and it's not a simple system to understand.

If you're interested in something like working at a startup... having advanced knowledge of Elasticsearch would make you a pretty desirable candidate.

Computer Science. Not programming, or this-or-that framework, but CS. Most EEs didn't get all that much of it in college, and it is very helpful. Languages come and go, but CS is forever.

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. I have talked to many people from business / marketing / other backgrounds that want to learn how to code. I generally advise them to try and learn some aspects of design -- either "user interface", "user experience", or general product design -- because their goal is to build a particular product, or to start a software business. IMO there are many skills involved in building technology products that require little to no programming skill, but understanding how people use computers on a deep level is far more valuable than spending your time mastering a programming language or web framework.

If your goal is to become a programmer, I will advise you that regardless of the language or path you choose, you are in for at least a 1-2 year learning process in which you will learn a language, an accompanying toolset, and the basic set of skills required to debug and architect large, complex programs. You will also be learning a lot of terminology, which is indispensable for what I believe to be the main skill involved in programming, which is knowing how to Google things.

To answer your question directly: From my vantage point, the puck appears to be skating in two directions. Golang is a rapidly growing language developed by Google, and is considered to be one of the best amalgamations of features from modern programming languages. I highly recommend it. It has only been out for four years, so I can't speak to how approachable it is to a newcomer, but if your goal is to learn a language that will not become obsolete in 5-10 years, I think Golang is a good bet to make.

In the other corner, there seems to be a growing community about a language called Clojure. It is a little complicated to explain Clojure's appeal to non-programmers, so be warned that exploring Clojure is slightly "off the beaten path" compared to many "mainsream" programming languages like Java, Python, or Ruby.

In short, there is a language called Lisp which is highly regarded in the elite programming community as the best way to write software. In his seminal essay "Beating the Averages" [1], Paul Graham offers several compelling arguments as to why Lisp-based langauges (and programmers) are superior to other forms of programming. Since I am not a Lisp developer, I recommend reading his article, since I would probably butcher any attempt to explain its merits against other popular languages. Anyway, Clojure is a modern implementation of Lisp, has an incredible community, and appears to be gaining a lot of traction. Given your background, starting with Clojure might make a lot of sense. Rich Hickey (the creator of Clojure) is an incredibly influential figure in programming circles.

Finally, unless your goal is to write mobile applications, a rudimentary knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript is required to be able to produce anything in our web-based world.

If you have any more questions, feel free to email me (my email is in my profile). I enjoy helping people navigate the confusing jungle of modern programming education, and I can point you in the right direction depending on what your goals and work ethic are.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

There's no one true answer, otherwise there would be only one language, right? Still, if you want to be conservative, I would say Python and Javascript are clearly two very good languages worth learning.. if not for the wide community and great libraries.

Since you know Matlab and C, I would suggest Python as being a good choice. It's much faster to develop web-oriented things in than C or Perl, and if you ever want to do more computationally intensive things, many people find NumPy and SciPy to be fantastic alternatives to Matlab. The nice thing about Python is that you can find so many things all in one language: shell scripting; graphical UIs; web programming and web scraping; web servers and network programming; convenient interfaces to low-level C libraries; fast vector libraries and powerful scientific programming... the list goes on. You can pull data off a serial cable, throw it into a big matrix on your GPU, compute a bunch of statistics, visualize them in 3D, dump screenshots to PNG, and serve them up in a dynamic web app... all in one language.

Ruby, JS, Perl, etc. can't really touch this. There are all sorts of "flavor of the moment" languages right now on HN but at the end of the day, if you want a mature, workhorse language that's easy to learn, has a lot of good libraries, and has a great community around it, choose Python.

Machine Learning. We will only have increasingly more data and we need to make good use of it. It's cool for the starter. It will take a lot of time to become good at it, so start now slowly, learning necessary tools, specific math subjects at least for the beginning.

People skills, but since we're talking about computers; I'll put a vote in for Node.

JavaScript for sure. Stay away from frameworks/libraries in the beginning and learn the ins and outs of the language first.

Yesod?

What's the best 'technology' vs what's the best 'language', I wonder if people are getting the two confused, or what the question you're asking truly is.

With a PhD in Electrical Engineering, I'd think you could go far in the growing hardware market.

I think the key in selecting a technology to learn 'right now', you need to consider when you'll want to use this technology for.

The way I (kinda) do it, is to not look at languages specifically, but what I want to do with them, and how I can leverage what I already know.

For example, recently I've wanted to start playing with hardware (RaspberryPi and Arduino). But I didn't just jump in and start learning C, I looked at what I already know (javascript/ruby/etc.) and am looking at how I can leverage that in this new technology.

I've also got an interest in algorithms and data, I've done some work with parse-trees in Ruby and have tried umpteen times to get to using the Stanford Parser with Java, but it normally ends with me curled in a ball sobbing, so now I'm doing the Coursera class in Scala (how often do you get to learn a language from the creator of that language).

I learned RoR, not because it was popular that day, but because I was working on a project I knew I would be passing on to another team to manage long-term, they had some RoR experience, and the structure of an RoR project meant I knew would lead them to easily understand how to manage it without much knowledge transfer.

So, to me, the best technology to learn is the one where you match your interests, and your existing knowledge to become an expert in what should be a growing field. One thing to consider there (of course) is where that technology will land you in 1-5 years.

Depends on whether you prefer working on the front-end or back-end. For front-end I would suggest JavaScript as used to develop WebApps. For the back-end, you could look at Go - Google created it and many people have had lots of success with it, especially when scaling services.

"From scratch" is relative but I guess you mean just without a CMS.

My favorite stack for the last year or two has been CoffeeScript (and now ToffeeScript which is even better) and Node.js with good old ExpressJS.

I also think AngularJS is probably the best starting point for many web applications these days. So actually most of your efforts would be with AngularJS since the front end is often going to be much more complex than the back end.

The most convenient way to store data I think is in JSON files or with MongoDB or RethinkDB. Or maybe better take a look at a CRUD framework like https://npmjs.org/package/auto-crud . Again, 'from scratch' is a relative term and actually the farther you stay away from that the better probably. But of course no one, including me, can learn everything, so you have to pick a set of tools and become comfortable with them and that is subjective.

Node has the most advantageous module/package system out there (npm) with the support for semantic versioning and the sheer number of packages available in the registry (more than 41,000 at the moment).