I’ve been thinking. I have currently learnt most of the basics for Roblox lua and I’m gonna learn advanced scripting afterwards. I know a lot of developers on Roblox actually have experience with programming languages such as Python,Java etc.
However for me, Roblox Lua is kind of like the first programming language I have learnt(I have learnt a bit of Python 2 before but forgot a lot of things).
So, I need some help. What programming language should I learn after Roblox lua, I know that I’m thinking a bit too far cause I haven’t even mastered Roblox Lua yet but I think this will be useful for when I’m choosing a language to learn.
If you guys can, may you also recommend some websites for me to learn programming? I know about SoloLearn and Codecademy and freeCodeCamp already.
Note: I want to learn Programming because I would like to make games and design websites.
After Lua, you should learn a language that you will want to use or one that is very common and highly popular such as C#. But there is no solid answer, learn any language you want.
Javascript is on top of my list since it’s excellent if you want to make a web API for your game. Personally, I started learning Rust since it’s a new language comparable to C and C++, making it devoid of all historical garbage.
I moved onto TypeScript and started developing discord bots, it’s great since it can be transplied into JavaScript and used anywhere JavaScript can be used! There’s even TSX files if you wanted to use React JSX.
If you want my honest opinion, I would agree with @Kord_K at a main. You can learn whatever language you want, however most languages are built fit for a purpose with some being more complicated then others.
Your three probably most cliché ones are:
- A variant of C (C, C+, C++, C# etc),
- Java,
- Python.
Each of these languages has its benefits and downsides, and most of these languages are usually built for a purpose at the time. I would read advantages and disadvantages of each and then decide which is best for my purpose.
Thanks for the response. To be honest, I don’t know what TypeScript is so I might just check it out!
Thank you for the detailed answer and I agree with the fact that there is a purpose for each language.
TypeScript is a statically typed JavaScript (which @nooneisback mentioned) which is transpiled into JavaScript through the TypeScript Compiler (tsc), if you’ve used Luau strict mode with type annotations you’ll see the resemblence.
Luau:
local Variable : boolean = true;
TypeScript:
const Variable : boolean = true;
// OR
const Variable = true<boolean>;
A really awesome resource named Roblox-ts allows you to use TypeScript and compile it into Lua yet also move it over to Studio (Rojo is needed for that). You can take a peek at it here:
https://devforum.roblox.com/t/roblox-ts-a-typescript-to-lua-compiler-for-roblox/194919/
I suggest you try something like C++, or C#.
I suggest JavaScript because it is pretty easy to learn
If you’re looking to learn languages that are commonly used in software jobs:
- C# / .NET
- Java & Kotlin
- JavaScript & TypeScript
- Python
- Swift (iOS / MacOS only)
- SQL (Not really a language, but super useful to know)
- HTML5 / CSS3 (Also not languages, but good to know)
If you’re looking for some fun with more “up-and-coming” languages:
- Rust
- Go
Older popular languages that IMO are being phased out in the industry:
- Ruby
- PHP (debatable since Wordpress uses this & Wordpress has a huge dev userbase)
- Perl
- ObjectiveC (Swift is the alternative & is much better)
If you’re trying to get into web development, I suggest the following learning steps:
- Learn HTML
- Learn CSS
- Learn JavaScript
- Learn to combine them all
- Learn NodeJS for backend hosting of your site
- Learn popular front-end frameworks like React or Angular
- Learn build tools like Webpack
If you’re trying to get into game development outside of Roblox:
- C# (Unity)
- C++ (Unreal)
If you’re trying to do any embedded programming, or other things with microcontrollers, such as an Arduino:
- C / C++
- Also gotta learn up on hardware stuff, which is a ton of fun.
You can learn all of this for free! I cannot stress that enough. Totally free. I’ve learned all of the above for absolutely no money. All the content for learning this stuff is on the internet. You just gotta search around and be a patient learner.
There isn’t a point in learning another language at this moment. Just focus on learning Lua and whatever skills you pick up in Lua will easily translate to other languages. For example, I’ve written Lua for about 7 years, and in the past month I’ve learned and began using Python with proficiency for some task I needed to do. Programming is less about learning individual syntaxes (most of the time, though each language can have its own quirks that you’d only learn after lots of experience) and more about just general understanding of logic, planning and algorithms.
I would say C# too, though if you really want you can learn both C# and Lua side-by-side as some concepts you may find hard to deal in one of the programming languages at first until you tackle it in another programming language. E.G. Dictionaries and Arrays was one thing I found hard at first in Lua until I tackled it in Unity C# and NET.Core C#
Learn a language that involves OOP. Once you return to Lua, you will find that you can simplify much of your code and make it more efficient.