To answer your question about favourite programming languages: mine is Perl, because at this point I can write it in my sleep and CPAN has libraries for everything I want to do. I feel increasingly like a dinosaur - my impression is that postgrads and junior postdocs are learning Python/Ruby and a lot of experenced Perl programmers are switching. Perl seems to suit my mindset somehow - or possibly my brain has just been warped by it. - Tom Walsh

I'd vote for perl too. Like Tom said CPAN has libraries for everything, and bioperl is perfect for most of the problems. BTW I'm also thinking about learning some python/ruby too. - Endre Sebestyen

Java: many libraries, OO, fast learning curve/coding with eclipse, more job offers. - Pierre Lindenbaum

Walter seems to be going with Python. I doubt there's much to choose berween Perl/Ruby/Python/Java in terms of libraries for what he's trying to do. - Tom Walsh

I use Perl a lot for parsing files, knocking up webpages, talking to databases etc. I'm sure Ruby and Python are lovely, but I don't see how they can compete with CPAN. Having said that, most of my bioinformaticsy stuff involves big datasets (microarrays, next-gen sequencing data etc) so Bioconductor gets my vote for most useful Bio* project. - Cass Johnston