languages

despite starting to learn c++. I'm having doubts.
I could go and look on wikipedia for hours about programming languages, but having not done much in any language. It's all shit to me. I don't understand it.
So.
If any anon is kinda enough.
I wanna get started using a language. Any. A good functional language.
but why use it, and why not use C++? I hear alot about lisp.
icba reading SICP unless it's really worth it.

Big post. Expecting tl;dr from trolls.

Cheers /prog/

>>11
C/C++ are fucking awesome languages if you want essentially direct translation into native assembly, which is a necessity for OS-level shit. And when you're that close to the metal on current consumer systems (x86/x64), adding fancy features like first-class functions and dynamic typing just slow shit down to the point where the system is unusable.

Maybe eventually we'll see some more interesting architectures come out which cater more nicely to non-imperative programming styles, but for the moment, we're stuck knee-deep in the shit. For high-level applications (most everything these days) though, your point is completely valid.

inb4 someone more knowledgeable than me invalidates my post.