[NTLUG:Discuss] Direction Recomendations

[Cameron]

* tu20159tu at netzero.net [2000.07.19 22:00]:
: I am wanting to learn a programing language and would like to hear some
: recommendations of what to look at.  I do not have any prior programing
: knowledge but am looking to the future for a possible career change.  I
: would like to learn a language that will run on Linux.  I guess I really
: am looking for something connected with Linux that I can focus on with
: some hopes of future employment.
: Thanks/Randal

Well, it depends on what you want to.  Here are what I've used and how I
percieve their usefulness:

C:
 Most "applications" are written in C in the Linux/Unix world.  Very
 fast and robust, but takes more time to learn and program (in general).

C++:
 A lot like C but not.  ;)  Learning it would be about the same as
 learning C.

Perl:
 Great for text processing and system administration type things.  Very
 useful and powerful tool.  It's interpretted instead of compiled, so
 it's slower than C/C++.  But development time is a lot shorter largely
 because you don't have to do all the memory management that C/C++
 warrants.

Python:
 I've only used it a little, but my impression was that it's like Perl
 but is more targeted at Object Orientation.  Overall I've enjoyed
 learning Python and would recommend it to a novice programmer wishing
 to learn OOP without having to tackle memory mgmt.

Anyway, I'm no guru, so take this with a grain of salt.  I do however
enjoy programming and learning new things.  If I were just starting out,
I would go after Python.  There is a lot of documentation at python.org,
and it's very elegant language.  BTW, all of these languages are
available on Win32 platforms.  Well, that's it...
--
cameron
  / Why is it, 'A penny for your thoughts,' but, you have  \
  \ to 'put your two cents' in? Somebody's making a penny. /