EVE General Discussion

Visual Basic and COBOL.

Because matching thousands of parens is awesome. (See also LISP.)

Java : not good as learning language despite all the marketing success it has, good for outsourcing large projects.

Pascal : deprecated , good for learning if you want to learn C after that

Python : good for learning, adapted to human mind with lots of semi automatic stuff in the background, performance issue with vanilla version (interpreted language)

C++ : minnie style language : you need to adapt your brain to it, lots of micro managment, no strings attached, old but still active for performance and precision, connected to Unix Oses.

Perl: powerful data modification abilities but obfuscating.

Source

CCP also seem to sponsor/fund the Stackless Python project. [1]

I'm wondering if Erlang could also be used for handling concurrency issues, instead of Stackless Python.

Btw, are there any (detailed) Programming + Infrastructure links/dev blogs/resources about EVE? (before I start searching? :P).

As far as the PL are concerned, imho, Python is great to start. It's easy to learn and lets you focus on 'getting your algorithms right', which is really important when you start to learn how to code.

After that you can begin 'specializing' in what you want.

Whatever you choose, however, it's really important to have a good grasp on both the algo stuff (abstract data types, algorithmic complexity etc), and on low-level details (how the language implements core structs and methods, some compiler optimization stuff, userspace<->kernelspace interaction, interactions with the hardware (CPU arch, caches, memory, I/O)), in order to write optimized and efficient code.

For low-level/systems/performance-critical programming, you have no choice but C (and some (inline) asm perhaps). It's a trikcy language, but you will learn a lot writing in C, and you can do some really cool/weird stuff in it too. ;)

C++/Java/C# for large user-space applications and/or middleware. OO really shines in such apps. But I hate it. :P
Scala is becoming quite popular too.

Python or Ruby for smaller user-space apps perhaps, and some scripting. It can also be used for backend web development (Django, Rails etc).

Perl and Shell scripting for admin/maintenance work, handling of text files etc.

Erlang is good if you want to learn about concurrency (and it's becoming very popular in distributed, heavily concurrent systems). Most of the NoSQL db's or AQMP implementation there days are written in either C++ or Erlang, afaik.

Functional PLs, such as SML, are very good for digging deeper into PL, and will put you into a different mindset when coding (ever heard of tail recursion? etc). OCaML is a very nice mix of functional programming and OO, and Haskell, being a pure and lazy functional language, is pretty tricky, but will probably change the way you're writing code forever. :P Lisp probably falls into this category too (too many parentheses however :P), and used to have some applications in AI programming.

If you're into AI, you could also check Prolog (Logical Programming). I never got used to Logical Programming, however it's a nice challenge trying to write a few simple programs in Prolog. Except for Prolog, I think there are some more specialized languages, which focus on machine learning etc.

my 2c

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That is your answer.

As been said, look into C++ and Java and you are set.

Though I would suggest starting with C as it's highly unforgiveable and you will learn everything about the basics (most important memory allocation) in a clear technical way (do this until your synapses bleed and you can shift bits with the best of them ).

If you're having a masochistic streak, I would suggest to take a tour in Windows Programming (WinApi), which leads into some of the darkest, bloodiest C I have ever seen (also gives a good understanding on how GUIs work on a system level).

I don't mean true 'artificial intelligence' as in strong or general purpose intelligence

To start I just mean 'computerized opponents' as they exist in various computer games these days. I would assume that the 'rats' and 'sleepers' in EVE Online, and the various other types of computer opponents in contemporary computer games (e.g., the opponent soldiers in games like ArmA, Fallout or Borderlands, etc., or the opponent 'societies' in games like Civlization or Rome Total War) are just a specialized set of the rest of the game code, written in C++ or whatever that particular game is based in?

As a social scientist I have virtually no background in computer science theory, so what I'm really trying to do is go in a new direction, and one that will allow me to get a different job than my current one in academia.

Have to be honest though, eventually being involved in efforts to develop true general purpose intelligent machines is a fascinating prospect. Even some of the oldest "AI" examples are pretty mind-boggling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHRDLU#Excerpt

If you want to stay at hobbyist level starting with java/python is fine.
However if you want to become serious developer dive straight into C++.

Problem with transitioning off java to C++ is whole bunch of bad habbits, also some people mentioned lack of garbage colelction as some sort of difficult/negative thing about language.
Well thats frankly rubbish, in majority of cases you don't need to do anything special to avoid leaking memory. As long as you learn to write neat c++ code with use of stl/boost y

Hmmmm. Have been looking at some C++ and frankly it would appear there is a LOT of assumed knowledge just to start with learning that language.

Keep in mind, I have basically ZERO computer science training

Don't you think it might be better to start with something a little more approachable like Java or Python?

Actually though, OST does list an Introduction to C Programming in their set of three courese "For the Complete I.T. Beginner."

The other two being

Linux/Unix 1: The Unix file system

Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming

Like I said, I'm starting on a long-term track here, so learning a variety of stuff in the long-run is the plan. But since how I start could make a bit of difference I'd like that first choice to be a smart one.

Explains alot.