What is the most powerful programming language?

Aside from the Assembly Language, what is the most powerful language?

[mrnutty]

They all suck and have their weakness. So there isn't one.

so there's no most powerful programming language at all. okay.

:)

[ddanbe]

Define powerfull in this context. :)

the one that can almost do anything a programmer wants to do with,,,

extends its power not only on the computer itself but also on the web..

:)

[steelshark]

There is no such thing as an universal "Best programming language"...
For every job there is one perfect language, and thats about all i have to say about this subject.
By the way, next time you make a poll , please include some really powerful languages, not only the languages they teach you in school, for example Lisp

[seanbp]

the one that can almost do anything a programmer wants to do with

Python, because it's high-level, has a fantastic memory manager/recycler, a library that supports most anything anybody can ask of it, and has almost as little restrictions as C++. With Python formatting a programmer can practice coding style by understanding not only what works, but what looks elegant/pretty. Still, C++ is probably the most efficient because it is one of the lowest levels commonly programmed at. Alternatively, C++ teaches you the inner workings of the computer. Finally, Java is in my opinion a great middle ground between Python and C++.

[sophieharris]

i will go with the java because its friendly

[mrnutty]

Trick question, because at the end they are all the same!

[MosaicFuneral]

brainf' is the best, don't deny it.

[griswolf]

The one that will best solve your current (or maybe your next) problem. As everybody above points out (more or less directly): They all suck sometimes, and they are all Turing Complete, so whatever can be computed, you can describe the program in any of them.

[Mogathamous]

I would say "silence" is the most powerful programming language of all. It makes the most complex if...then statement ever. It can hold the forever loop without breaking the hardware. It is the most beautiful thing in a crowd. It is often used by the most powerful people, especially kings of the old time, "silence" you moron. I used it to program my wife all the time. She can do unimaginable thing with me being silence. There you have it.

[rubberman]

A bit on the retro side - I vote for APL! Or Prolog? Dibol? Snowbol? Smalltalk (did some good work in that)? Personally, I prefer to work with a mix of C and C++.

[cmps]

It depends on what you want to do ...
HTML CSS for web deisgn
PHP for dynamic websites (or ASP)
it's a long list .... Choose which field you want to learn more about to know which language best fits your needs.

[renato_francia]

That question is like asking what is the most powerful cofee out there?

[xcrunner15]

.net or java

[AARTI SHRIVAS]

first practice on programming language afetr that all are same logic of doing anything is same in every lagnuage

[mike_2000_17]

The most "powerful" top to bottom combination of languages for desktop / server applications seems to be C / C++ / Python. That's my two cents.

[obatoki.james]

high level language

[ronald577]

I think ASP dot net

[NardCake]

I'm surprised people are actually answering, there isn't one most powerful language, and I disagree with most opinions.

Although imo a low level modern language (Assembly has already been mentioned) such as C. But realistically I prefer D by far.

[aquaprin90]

See all the languages have its ups and downs, so it is a very difficult question to answer whether which is the most powerful and rest the requirements of the programmer can help tp make a conclusion.

[Rahul_25]

I think this is the wrong question because from my opinion java is the best programming language that provide security. plateform independent application and many more feature.

[ronald577]

I think, PHP(Hypertext preprocessor) and Advance Java are most powerful programming language..

[silverice282]

I would say it depends on what you are trying to write.

Asked a couple of my programming friends, and they all pretty much agreed that C/C++ was the most powerful, and Java was the most flexible...

[asaa]

bekines

[Diguelo]

For me theres really only one language that can truely be classed as an omnipotent language for all types of program. Machine code. Its slow to learn but once you have a good set of documented building blocks the rest is easy to adapt to fit whatever use you have and the good part is it works over all OS systems and machines. Just have the right books or library files and your off and cooking.

High Level languages all have their limitations as an earlier post says, however theres nothing to stop you from adding commands to that langauge to make it do whatever you want.

As an old guy I was around back in the day before Clive Sinclair made the Z80 and programming was done on punch cards, fun but hellishly slow and if you dropped the pile when loading the carrier it took a while to get it all in order ;)

Just having a look at basic 8086 mneumonic code that was and still is in most machines the building block everything is based around up the PC food chain.

Personally if I want to program anything I use QBasic still for simple interface progs, obviously compiled back to machine code to make em go like stink. Then theres the most common language C++ complicated and a pain in the ass to learn from day one especially when it all looks like its written in a form of hyroglyphs and latin combined with japanese and a little russian just for flavour.

If your going to start programming for the first time then for heavens sake start with VBasic. Its easy to learn with simplicity the key to it all. A command like "Let A=15" or "Print"Hello" makes sense to those of us that need sense.

Fastest programming language for game coding has to be C++ / C# now.

The main trouble with all high level language is that the more complex they are the more memory they take up and the more slowly they are able to work.

Have a play with Basic to start off learning, then if that doesnt rock your boat take a look at C# or the new F# which is starting to look alright but why on earth we cant have a language written that simply uses english instead of needing a degree in Geek just to add 2 numbers together is beyond me.

Oh but then if everyone can do it then theres no point in having massive wages for code slaves and everyone can get involved, how silly of me forgot that.

Ive already started chewing a language together written in machine code that uses english to code in. GASP SHOCK HORROR ENGLISH !!!! if anyone wants to pay me a couple of billion to discontinue development then that fine :)

[deceptikon]

For me theres really only one language that can truely be classed as an omnipotent language for all types of program. Machine code. Its slow to learn but once you have a good set of documented building blocks the rest is easy to adapt to fit whatever use you have and the good part is it works over all OS systems and machines.

...

why on earth we cant have a language written that simply uses english instead of needing a degree in Geek just to add 2 numbers together is beyond me.

They tried that as early as the 60s and those languages typically fail miserably. COBOL is the only one I can think of that was successful, and it uses a standardized "business" language rather than true natural language. The problem is that natural language is too verbose and difficult to reach expressive precision, which makes it extremely hard to parse. There's a reason that programming languages are based on mathematical theory: it's precise and consise.

Natural language parsing is getting to the point where a natural programming language might not be totally impractical, but I'm not holding my breath. ;)

Ive already started chewing a language together written in machine code that uses english to code in. GASP SHOCK HORROR ENGLISH !!!!

I'd be interested in seeing it.

[Reverend Jim]

If you want the language that packs the most punch for the least code I would have to go with APL. Imagine implementing Conway's game of life in one line of code of fewer than 80 characters. Note - you said powerful, not readable.

[jwenting]

I'd say that's not at all powerful as it's impossible to maintain, extend, or comprehend, and therefore utterly useless by all practical considerations given to production code :)

Which leads to the inevitable "how do you define powerful" :)