Famous developers reveal the programming languages they’re glad they learned | Artificial intelligence

Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said that learning to code “creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains”. But if learning programming changes your thinking, it is your choice of programming language that molds that new perspective.

Families of programming languages have idiosyncratic styles that constrain how developers solve problems. The tools each programming language makes available, be it a function in Haskell or a class in Java, will shape the ultimate solution.

There is even a school of thought that certain programming languages should be avoided by beginners, for fear those languages’ poor designs will instill bad habits.

SEE: Hiring kit: Python developer (Tech Pro Research)

Given the influence individual programming languages can have, here are the languages that notable developers working today say they’re particularly glad they learned and why.

John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and CTO of Oculus VR
Notable programming language: Racket

Why Racket? “Almost all of my day-to-day work is in C++, but I have a soft spot for Racket for small side projects. Racket is a Lisp descendent, and it is remarkable that a language with roots that go back sixty years can be honestly argued to be among the most productive languages today.”

Find out more about Racket: A dialect of Lisp and a descendant of Scheme, Racket has garnered enthusiastic praise for its power in the hands of a knowledgeable programmer.
Notable programming language: Simula67

Why Simula67? “It taught me the value of a flexible and extensible type system.”

Find out more about Simula67: Created by the University of Oslo to aid in the construction of advanced mathematical simulations, Simula 1.0 released in 1967 and its legacy can be seen in the object-oriented paradigm used by many major programming languages today.
Notable programming language: Lisp

Why Lisp? “I’m glad I learned Lisp at an early age, for two reasons: it is an interactive language that encourages exploration (something we take for granted in Python, Javascript, Ruby, etc. today, but was rare then) and it is a programmable programming language, which taught me about language design, about how compilers and interpreters work, and about having good taste in problem decomposition.”

Find out more about Lisp: Created in 1958, Lisp remained in widespread use for decades, and is credited with being a powerful language with a minimal design that lives on through dialects like Scheme.