Re: What language should I learn?

[zwon]

I don't think that easy transition from Perl is a good criteria to look for a new language to learn. You should look for a language that would allow you to solve tasks you can't solve with Perl, or you can but not so efficient. Using this criteria I would recommend you to learn JavaScript, C, SQL, Erlang, Java.

[ww]

+ +

For some purposes, "ease of transition" may even be a bad criterion: the phrase seems to me to imply that one seeks a language with an inate similarity to Perl.

For breadth of knowledge (and tools in your kit), perhaps one of zwon's picks... and perhaps also consider learning about the three basic (by one standard; there are others) types of programming languages: Procedural, Structured, and Object Oriented.

Some of the other labels for distinguishing among languages include: Functional (with subclasses), Concurrent, and Event-Driven. And some CScientists still chose as their key distinction "Compiled vs Interpreted" (FWIW, Perl confounds many of these categorizations: For example, Procedural style is common -- and the community seems to lean toward "structural" style code as a best-practice, today; object-oriented style is also widely used; and when you get to "compiled vs. interpreted" you may start tearing your hair (if any) out.

Can't resist: :-) -- so too will the distinctions reflected in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages_by_category.