Advice on selecting programming languages to concentrate on? (2nd year IT security student)
- by Tyler J Fisher
I'm in the process of considering which programming languages I should devote the majority of my coding studies to. I'm a 2nd year CS student, majoring in IT security.
What I want to do/work with:
Intelligence gathering
Relational databases
Virus design
Snort network IPS
Current coding experience (what I'm going to keep):
Java - intermediate
HTML5 - intermediate
SQL (MySQL, Oracle 11g) - basic
BASH - basic
I'm going to need to learn (at least) one of the following languages in order to be successful in my field.
Languages to add (at least 1):
Ruby (+Metasploit)
C++ (virus design, low-level driver interaction, computationally intensive applications)
Python (import ALL the things)
My dilemma: If I diversify too broadly, I won't be able to focus on, and improve in a specific niche. Does anyone have any advice as to how I should select a language?
What I'm considering + why
I'm leaning towards Ruby because of Metasploit support, despite lower efficiency when compared to Python.
Any suggestions based on real-world experience? Should I focus on Ruby, Python, or C++? Both Ruby, and Python have been regarded as syntactically similar to Java which my degree is based around. I'm going to be studying C++ in two years as a component of my malicious code class.
Thanks,
Tyler