Socket programming is something I’ve been interested in since I first learned about WebSockets. Since I got into programming as a web developer, without a background in computer science, it’s a pretty strange concept for me. I’m used to the request/response cycle of HTTP, obviously with a bit of AJAX mixed in to make it feel more interactive. I understand the concept behind sockets and have made a couple small projects with WebSockets, but actually building a custom socket-based application is a bit different.
I found some nice tutorials on how to do it in C# and C++. There are some available for Ruby too, which is the language I’m most familiar with. To get a better high-level understanding of it, I might start there. But since this is really a learning exercise for now, it would be nice to use it as an excuse to get more comfortable in either C# or C++.
Deciding between the two is tough. C# is very popular and more familiar for me, with a lot of similarities to JavaScript and no need for manual memory management. C++ would help me understand a little more about what’s going on with the computer, but it’s not actually a language I would likely use professionally for apps or web development.