Programming Language : Undergraduate Electrical Engineer

I vote for C++ and VHDL. If you can do these two, you'll be able to do just about anything.

It really depends on what area of engineering you are looking at and what applications you will be dealing with. The different languages have their advantages and disadvantages. C++ is nice, but I would suggest you learn a second language that allows you to cover a large area of applications rather than just learning C and C++. Specialisation is nice but flexibility is better.

I am just happy I don't have to write code in Hexadecimal anymore. Hooray for compilers!

Java? not my cup of tea

And the important thing is not so much to learn to program, but to learn how to learn to program, since new languages come into vogue every few years.

Fortran, anyone?

I still remember how to code in Fortran.... Damn I'm old.

I don't remember much, but I'm sure I could still manage to put the printer feeder in an infinite loop.

C++ will give you a good grounding in the basics. As an Elec Eng you'll have to learn new languages and dialects all the time anyway. Jeff

If you are interested in embedded programming. C as a scaffold for assembly is the way to go. You only need assembler for 5% or less of the code and sometimes none at all but first you need to learn to write fast clean code and profile it to really understand what it does. GNUCC without the latest open source restrictions is what I would use. It is portable over almost everything.

If you want to add C++ on to that you can but be aware of what everything you add to a program costs in memory and processor cycles. The day will come when the boss wants faster code it won't be yours than need fixing.

I recommend Java as the language to use to as human interface and to use Berkley sockets to interface between the processes. Read up on distributed processing and ways to make it happen

I would try to learn languages and tools that are common to Windows, Unix, Linux and an embedded CPUs. Being married to one OS is not a good thing for an engineer who should select thing on their merit for the task at hand not what he know how to use.

Good luck
Gordon

Java

FORTRAN - Over fifty and still kicking butt.

Any "high level" language will do. It's not so much as to the programming language, but if you have a good understanding of a "high level" language, like FORTRAN, C, etc., you will understand programming in PLC a lot easier when you're in the field.

MidniteFighter

C++ is definately the way to go. Like previous posters have stated, you will eventually have to learn other languages/dialects etc. C++ or C# will give you all the CORE knowledge and teach you good programming fundamentals that will carry on to any language you learn. Oh yea, SAVE Everything and keep your program/module names discriptive. I still use a generic algorithm that I made back in my junior year.

I strongly disagree with any old thing will do. Understanding how to write small, tight fast code in C or assembly is important before you learn to use the the OO stuff. It is easy to add feature to fast code when you need them.

It is pure Hell to scrub slow code that has call the floating point library 3 different ways, used floating point to calculate money[count pennies] or time[ count seconds or milliseconds. I have what recommendation code that ran a less than 4 iteratIons per second because carelessly using floating point and had it running 200 times a second in 4 hours after the fellow working on it quit after two months of trying it to run a 10 times a second.
weren't
You need a high levels language to interface with humans but it doesn't take much code to the do that most of the time. I have seen far too may OO programs that tried to include realtime actions in with different degrees of success. I found it far better to have one program to deal with people and one for machines. Sometimes you need one or two in between to make things flow smoothly.

My first software went to market in in 1978 and I have has something on the market almost every day since then. Some were really good and some weren't.

People that can work directly with software and hardware will always be in demand. If you can do analog hardware you will be in even more demand. You can always find someone that can write high level programs that interact with people and spit out the I/O you need for the hard stuff. But when it comes to making engine or process controllers and such work it really easy to tell if the do what the are supposed to or not.

Don't try to compete with the Computer Science guys go for what you can do better than they can. An EE that spends 5 years leaning electronics doesn't need the same toolset a CS guy need to write yet another book keeping system. We need to make a seamless connection between hardware and software on a very low level.

Gordon

First choose which field you are going to make your future. then select the programing language according to that.

Today almost in every company they ask questions on C and C++ in both Interview and in Technical Test so become expert in it.

If you want to make career around a particular field then learn the related programing languages example..

VLSI design - VHDL, Verilog, etc...

Embedded - C, C++, Embedded C, RTOS, etc....

Web developing - VB.net, ASP.net,AJAX, LAMP,JAVA etc...

for more information visit some job websites and search a job in particular field and see the current trend according to current trend update your knowledge.

All the best..........Bye.............!

OK, some languages were already listed.

Most applications for so called real world are made using PLC software as Logix for Rockwell Automation h/w. It is trend in Open PLC that has a few ways to program including Ladder Logic approach.

Electronics Engineering, Instrumentation and Process Control (including DAQ =Data Acquisition or SCADA) use LabVIEW - G-graphical programming

Thanks for replying everyone..

Guest was me, I just couldn't be bothered signing in..

i think it is the matter of first importrance for us bcz every modern electonics circut have at least this requirement

I recommend C&VHDL