Raspberry Pi/Linux Getting started

Hi,

I need a little advice/direction...

I am a retired electrical engineer with embedded hardware and "retro" software development experience (Retro - unix, qnx, C (before "++", assembly). So I know how to code, but am not familiar with anything relatively current. I actually remember using Fortran :)

This winter I want to start playing with learning linux and a development language on a Pi, but I don't know where to start. I have raspian loaded on a Pi running, but want to make the right decision on what development language to use/learn first. Python? Others?

I have an idea for a project, which would be to develop a little bit of automation to get started, but it would also be nice to be able to run squeezelite concurrently. Sort of a player while coordinating some digital I/O. I would also like to understand what people are doing with regard to plugin development, but that's another project direction.

I know that this might be better posted on the Pi Forum, but I wanted to address squeezelite integration.

So, any thoughts to get me started would be appreciated. I would hate to decide on my own to turn left when I should have turned right...

Jim