<p>I know some of the earlier computer science classes use Java, but does the program ever get into C++? Are there courses catered towards other languages or is it all exclusively Java? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>216 (don’t know the new number) uses C++ and assembly with no Java.
There are upper level classes dealing with more webby languages.</p>
<p>Thank you hazelorb. But do you know what the main language the computer science majors will use?</p>
<p>You cant say one language that every computer science class will use, but almost every one will be either java, C++ or python, or mixes of them</p>
<p>Agreed. There isn’t a “main” language. You’ll see a lot of Java and some heavy work in C++, but beyond that, you have choices of taking languages like Python, PHP/HTML/script languages, etc. But main, early classes are C++ and Java. If you do the e-school route, you’ll see a lot of Java early on…</p>
<p>Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>What I really wanted to know was if UVA’s CompSci program had a substantial amount of work in C++. It seems to be an industry standard, and when I look at the type of careers I want to go into, C++ is always the desired language. I heard from a friend that UVA’s program was more Java based, which kind of pushed me away from UVA. Thank you everyone for your input.</p>
<p>You do realize that if you have a solid background in programming in any language, you can pick up others more easily in the future - what happens when the industry switches from C++ (which it will)? You’ll be stuck if you only know C++, but if you know how to pick up new languages easily (which UVA makes sure you can do), you won’t have problems. It is Java based for the first two classes. Then no Java in the 3rd class. Then… whatever the professor wants. But if you want to go to a school that focuses on C++ instead of focusing on programming across many languages then that is your prerogative. More relevant is that UVA is more heavily geared towards graduate school tracking and not industry… FYI.</p>
<p>The reason that Java is used in the intro CS classes at UVA (and at the majority of schools throughout the nation) is because it’s pretty simple to learn, it is extremely well documented, and it very portable. If they were to teach C++ right off the bat there would be a lot of confusion regarding pointers and other more advanced topics.</p>
<p>Besides, Java is used to a fair degree in industry as well. Be glad that the intro courses aren’t in Lisp.</p>
<p>I am in the industry and believe it would be short-sighted to judge a college’s CS program based on whether it used C++ or not. Plus, much of a decent CS program is not software, anyway. </p>
<p>My belief is the trend is away from C++ toward more dynamic languages and, within the Microsoft suite, C# and its relatives. Microsoft is investing heavily in C# and dynamic languages (Python, Ruby, etc.).</p>
<p>Yea, learning programming skills and techniques as well as good programming habits is more important than learning a particular language. That’s why at various places on the web you will see people advocate for Python as the first programming language. It has clean syntax (thus forcing you to have good formatting habit), and it’s simple and powerful enough that you get to focus on what you want to do instead of dealing with the details.</p>