We all know you can't "learn x programming language in a day" without travelling to the Arctic and catching a day that last half a year.

But what's the worst language to try and learn in a day?

I vote c++. Manual memory management, multiple inheritance, static compilation, operator overloading, and generally non-human syntax ( Like std::cout << "This is how you print!" << std::endl; ) make it a difficult one to attempt in a day.

It depends much on how you define learn.

Many languages can be hard when you go deep.

C++ is not to difficult for the very simple things but very difficult for complex generics.

Mumps is supposed to be a blast :P

C++ seems like the best choice. I've heard from people working with it for years that they are still surprised by it daily.

Another option are Esolangs, I guess. Most that I know are designed to be so non-intuitive that they also take a while to master.

And then there's F*, which combines the clarity of functional programming with the need to prove correctness of your program during compilation.

Another good comtender would be Microsofts P or Q languages.

Or Lisp.

P is a language designed for mathematically verifiable programs using state machines and Q is for quantum computing.

And list, well its lisp ;)

Or maybe machine code for some arcane hardware platform, where the only existing documentation has half its pages torn and the other half so stained with coffee that they're almost unreadable.

if all languages count: malbolge
if only in real world applications used language: ABAP

DoD "learn"?

Assembly.

@Voxera Isn't mumps a disease?

Erlang.

How much do I need to know in a day to count as "have learnt"?

Enough to write and execute a hello world?

Enough to build business logic with the language?

What's the level of knowledge we are constrained too here?

@PrivateGER Erlang is actually pretty easy if you had no contact with other languages.
I had to learn it during my first semester on college and boy, that was a blast.
Never had any contact with programming before, so Functional was pretty much math for me. Which was good.

That said, after years working with C++ and Python, my knowledge went a bit rusty. I've been trying to learn some (went through Clojure, Elixir, Scala and F#) but to no avail.

@JFK422 It's also a programming language. People working with this language would prefer a severe case of the disease though.

http://thedailywtf.com/articles/...

@C0D4 if I told you I need a system that did X, Y and Z (that can be fully made with the language), would you be able to? Doesn't need to be the best code out there, I just need it to work.

I believe that's a start. At least, that's how I try to convince myself that I've learnt something new. :v

@DarkMelchiah Sure, it's just incredibly hard to learn it if you're used to traditional languages. You basically have to relearn all your processes.

@PrivateGER indeed. It's a whole different paradigm after all.does wonders once you master it, tho.
Mathematically speaking, functional is godlike.

Fortran.

Brainfuck, or if we are talking about useful launguages: assembler.

Yeah sure {$Any_language}, because perl is a walk in the park

As much as I like C (well mostly), I hate C++ with a passion. Totally siding with Torvalds in that regard.

C++ programming with regular functions and classes would be medium difficulty. However, trying to learn the language with templates in a day would be more difficult. Templates are a completely different language inside of C++.

@JFK422 yes but its also a bad much used programing language in the american hospital system.

IMO, Assembly (kind of), Haskell, Brainf**k, esolangs are harder than C/C++.

Brainfuck is literally the easiest language that exists, creating something with it is just annoying.

@PrivateGER Why do you think that it is easy? It aint easy to memorise all those instructions so any other launguage that has more intuitive instructions is better.

@Gregozor2121 There are a total of six instructions. Basically no language is easier to learn. The only thing complex about it is working around the lack of advanced operations.

I vote for language constructs, keywords and concepts as a measurement. Deprecated not counting (as this would be a huge disadvantage to older languages). The problem with C++ for instance is that even if you read code that was written without a framework and just with what the standard lib provides you need a freaking study even when you come from C.