I'm 26 and having a bit of a career reset, so I'm thinking about what programming direction to pursue next. I first learned Pascal in school, and that knowledge carried over fairly naturally to Delphi during college. However, I no longer want to use Delphi and would like to learn a different language. Are there any languages with a similar structure or programming style, and what would you recommend learning based on my existing experience?
4 Answers
C# is probably the most natural transition. Anders Hejlsberg, who designed Delphi, also played a major role in creating C#, so there are similarities in structure and design. If you worked with Delphi’s visual application frameworks, concepts like WinForms and WPF should also feel reasonably familiar.
You don’t necessarily need to choose a language based on similar syntax. Most of the important programming concepts transfer, and learning a new syntax is usually the easy part. Python is a strong general-purpose choice today, especially if you want to build useful projects quickly, although the best option depends on what kind of software you want to make.
If you still enjoy Pascal itself but mainly dislike Delphi, Free Pascal is worth investigating. It lets you continue using a Pascal-style language without being tied to Delphi, while C++Builder is another option if you want C++ with a development environment and application framework that feel closer to Delphi.
C is fairly close to Pascal in overall structure. The keywords and syntax differ, but many of the basic ideas—types, procedures or functions, control flow, and manual data structures—will be familiar. It’s a useful choice if you want to understand lower-level programming.
Python is a good way to get started and see results quickly, but it can hide some lower-level details. Since you already have programming experience, it would be worth studying fundamentals alongside it rather than relying only on high-level features.