On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Michael Havens wrote: > website development seems like the only thing I would want to do so Ruby it > is! and that is the typical story with Ruby developers... ;) -jmz > Unfortunately, it isn't on my Ubuntuu install. When  I tried to start it > it told me to apt-get it. No internet connection. > > On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 7:12 PM, Joseph Sinclair > wrote: >> >> Let's not devolve into a favorite language war.  There are situations >> where Python is a great language choice, and situations where it's terrible. >> Every language choice comes down to what you want to accomplish. >>  Some languages are good for rapid development of websites (Ruby, PHP, >> etc...). >>  Some languages are good for systems management scripts (Python, Perl, >> etc...). >>  Some languages are good for developing large web systems intended to be >> maintained for years (Java, others). >>  Some languages are good for developing packaged COTS software (C++, Java, >> etc...). >>  Some languages are good for system software and embedded devices (C, C++, >> etc...). >>  Many languages are most useful in very specific niches (Forth, Lisp, ADA, >> XSLT, LOLCode, Objective-C, etc...) >> >> Most languages have multiple areas where they work well, and multiple >> areas where they're not so good. >> What exactly you want to accomplish in your software development should >> drive the language choice, although it rarely does. >> >> No one particular language is the best choice for learning how to write >> software; each type of software development will drive a different choice of >> the best "first" language to learn. >> >> Mike, you need to specify your goal more precisely in order for the >> community here to give you a useful recommendation that will help you best >> accomplish that goal. >> >> ==Joseph++ >> >> Kevin Fries wrote: >> > Wow, now I know why it is so hard to hire people that are competent! >> >  Python is fun, not right, but fun... Thats your argument?  If you want to >> > know why we refuse to hire Python programmers at our company, I can give you >> > real facts on why you should not use that language as a place to learn... >> > Not opinions. >> > >> > Kevin >> > >> > Sent from my Nokia phone >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: Joshua Zeidner >> > Sent:  02/20/2010 4:17:23 PM >> > Subject:  Re: >> > >> > On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Joshua Zeidner >> > wrote: >> >>  Seems like we have a lot of opinions here.  Here is a paper from ACM >> >> on the use of Python in for teaching programming. >> >> >> >>    http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=114017 >> > >> >   sorry wrong link: >> >  http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1140123.1140177 >> > >> >        -jmz >> > >> >>  -jmz >> >> >> >> >> >> On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Austin William Wright >> >> wrote: >> >>> Alan Dayley wrote: >> >>>> Python. >> >>>> >> >>> Absolutely NOT PYTHON. It breaks the first two rules of programming, >> >>> the >> >>> assignment operator (=) assigns values to a variable, and always >> >>> ignore >> >>> whitespace. Well my first two rules, at least. Plus it sucks at >> >>> consistent use of object-oriented programming. >> >>> >> >>> If you *really* need a general-purpose programming language, look at >> >>> Ruby, it's slightly more well behaved. Slightly. I would recommend >> >>> Javascript, it's a major programming language, and you can run it in >> >>> your web browser with literally nothing to install. Plus Javascript is >> >>> closely related to XML and HTML, while not programming languages, are >> >>> markup languages (a way of storing data) that is becoming very >> >>> important >> >>> to know for many things. Though designed for the web, many of these >> >>> things are finding themselves become part of everyday computing, >> >>> especially XML. For these things, http://www.w3schools.com/ is >> >>> popular. >> >>> >> >>> Any scripting language might be a good start at learning about >> >>> if/then/else logic, but none of these languages are going to teach how >> >>> computers really *process* or *store* information on the inside (how >> >>> the >> >>> CPU executes the program or how variables are stored in memory), or >> >>> for >> >>> that matter write an actual interactive computer program, you will >> >>> need >> >>> a real language like C or C++. After learning something like >> >>> Javascript >> >>> you will find C surprisingly limited in functionality if you try and >> >>> do >> >>> things the same way, especially variable-length variables like strings >> >>> and arrays. Keep that fact in the back of your head for when, if, you >> >>> attempt C/C++. >> >>> >> >>> Whatever you do, Google " tutorial" should bring up something good. >> >>> In the way of books, however, you can't miss ones from O'Reilly ( >> >>> http://oreilly.com/ ), they are jade/teal and have a random animal on >> >>> the cover. >> >>> >> >>> Austin Wright. >> >>> --------------------------------------------------- >> >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> >>> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> http://home.joshuazeidner.com/ >> >> >> > >> > >> > >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > -- > :-)~MIKE~(-: > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- http://home.joshuazeidner.com/ --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss