Programming/Scripting Resource

[Andrew Malcolmson]

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:43:27 -0500, "Sy Ali" <sy1234-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> said:
> On 1/10/07, Matt <matt-oC+CK0giAiYdmIl+iVs3AywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > So, I have two questions:
> > 1) What language should I look at learning/relearning?  I'm thinking
> > Perl, since I've done some before, though it's been a while
> > 2) Does anyone know a good resource for n00bs to teach themselves?
> 
> I also ask the same questions others have asked:  Why do you want to
> learn?  For what specific purpose?
> 
> If you're learning just to get entry-level skills to eventually get
> useful skills, then look at Ruby or Python.  I recommend Ruby because
> it's easy on your brain.
> 
> Links: http://www.trug.ca/Ruby
> 
> And some good starting material:
> http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
> http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/
> http://tryruby.hobix.com/
> 
> Once you can do some very basic stuff, then re-examine yourself and
> choose a language suited to some field or problem.  Bash for
> commandline, Ruby or the more popular PHP for web, Perl for all kinds
> of stuff, C for kernel stuff, etc.
> 
> Or whatever language your favourite app is written in.

Matt is correct that Ruby or Python are great choices for first (and
continuing) languages.

They're similar in these ways:
- cross-platform, high level languages, suitable for use almost anywhere
- designed and used by discriminating users who've tried lots of
languages 
- enthusiastic and mostly positive user communities

They're different in these ways:
- Ruby allows a lot of expressiveness, maybe at the cost of clarity
- Python values clarity of intention above all, at the cost of terseness
- Ruby is still young (though growing fast). Python has the great
advantage of over ten years of learning resources, tools, and library
support
- Python is much more widely deployed, for instance in Linux system
administration tools in Red Hat, Gentoo, and Ubuntu.  It is a supported
scripting language under Open Office, Gnome, and numerous applications. 
It is pre-loaded on HP Pavilion Windows XP machines.  A huge amount of
current web traffic runs on Python by way of BitTorrent.  Prominent
Python people work for Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft. Ruby has made
a big splash with its Rails framework, and may eventually surpass PHP in
web development (hopefully), but for now, as far as I know, it hasn't
gone a lot further.
 
There's a lot of mutual respect between the two camps.  Probably the
best thing to do is try both and see which you prefer.  If you want to
meet some Python people, there's a meeting tonight (Tuesday) of the
Toronto Python User's Group at the Linux Cafe.

http://web.engcorp.com/pygta/wiki/NextMeeting

-------------------
Andrew Malcolmson

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