About programing, a general question

[Michael Hennebry]

I'd go with python as the default language for anything
that doesn't require speed or access to the metal.
For a beginner, python has the bonus that
indentation is part of the syntax.

For speed, one can use C, fortran, java, C++ or assembly.
For access to the metal, one can use C, C++ or assembly.
With the right kind of linker tricks, I suspect one could also use fortran.

At my current job, I program in C and assembly for AVRs.
My first program here was in python.
It replaced a venerable perl program.
The venerable wouldn't run after a perl interpreter update.

Defaults aside, the choice of language can be strongly
influenced by the additives available.
Some of my current python code uses
a serial IO library and a GUI library.
Without them, I might have chosen differently.
Perl is noted for having lots of additives available.

-- 
Michael   hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"Pessimist: The glass is half empty.
Optimist:   The glass is half full.
Engineer:   The glass is twice as big as it needs to be."