Which programming language?

Enid

HI,

Just wondering if anyone could offer advice on the following:
I have a degree in languages (Speak English, German, French)and after doing some training in UNIX and Oracle I got two years experience working for a major investment bank in Germany as a support engineer for various in-house applications.

Six months ago I left my job to spend some time travelling. Now I'm back I intend to try and move into development (not mad for support) and the agency I worked through previously are offering to train me in JAVA.

Can anyone offer opinions on what are the best technologies for me to get into? ie which will offer best prospects and earn most money? Is JAVA the way forward? .NET perhaps? or any other suggstions?

Many thanks in advance!

keenon

sap

Enid

What is the best way to get into SAP without incurring huge course fees?

Are there companies out there who will take people without a great deal of IT experience and give on the job SAP training?

HÆLLRÆZOR

C/C++ is the language to learn IMHO. It is best to learn basic C first then move into C++. After you get the syntax down learning JAVA and the .NET language C# is relativly easy. This is the track I went through. Except I am guessing about the learning JAVA part. One of my friends who went to the same school I did and learned C/C++ like I did told me it was fairly easy to learn JAVA after learning C/C++. Also learning some ASM will be very helpful if you do decide to learn C/C++. Perl and Python are also some other languages that I would suggest you try to learn.

lazyart

If you are going that route, dont bother with C.. go straight to C++

sab4you

My vote is for C++

I would compare jobs in your area for java and C++ over a month or so and see which has more opportunities.

HÆLLRÆZOR

I don't know why people are saying go straight to C++. I think you should learn basic C first because it will make you a better C++ programmer. It is up to you though.

SHOULD I LEARN C FIRST OR C++

This is a tough decision. You will have to learn C in either event. You will either learn C first or learn C as you learn C++ techniques. I normally recommend you learn the basics of the C language before you learn C++. I feel that trying to learn C++ as an Object Oriented Language initially, deprives the programmer of vital necessary skills that need to be learnt.

keenon

as far as on sap you would have to learn the base language (a bap) if you have done ERP in some form i think most companies would find a way to bring you in to get you up to speed on sap.

Enid

Thanks to you all for the tips, I'm definitely going to look into the C/C++ option.

tunerX

Where in Germany were you. I live in Bensheim.

Enid

Frankfurt

JOblessELement

I started off with C++ and had no problems whatsoever.

Unless you're working in an absolutely new setup where OOPS has been followed right from the start, issues/questions begin to pop up when dealing with legacy code (IOW, C code) while having to port or write C++ code to work using C "modules". Basically, you have to know C constructs, keywords and how memory is allocated, deallocated, etc to make sure the transition goes along smoothly.

The whole concept of OOPS is pretty darn interesting and JAVA makes that a lot of fun as does C#/.Net. My advice would be the same as HellRazor's. C -> C++ -> Java (learn J2EE, J2ME is hot right now) -> C#/.Net (should be cake once you have JAVA down right)