Thanks for all the good posts! There's nothin' like asking about which
language is best to stir up discussion on the list.. :-) Time to buy some
books and some Mountain Dew!
Don
> On Jul 24, 12:39pm, Don Harrop wrote:
>
> > I was wondering if I could get some feedback on some scripting /
programming
> > languages to jump into for a newbie coder. Perl seems like a good
choice
> > because everybody has it and there's tons of support. You can either
use it
> > for web page development or linux admin stuff. I don't know if you can
> > compile it to a single exacutable under DOS/WIN stuff though. That
would be
> > cool. I've listened to a few people on the list talk about python and
it
> > sounds good but it doesn't seem to have the same amount of support as
Perl
> > does. C++ would be cool but I don't want to have to compile everything
> > before I can run it. It might be overkill for a newbie. :-) Links on
> > where to go to learn the code would be nice too...
>
> I too think Perl is a good choice. Some comments though...
>
> - I'm not sure why you place so much importance on support. For
> newbies, both Perl and Python are rock solid; I'd be *very*
> surprised if you encountered problems with either language that
> required any support at all.
>
> - Compiling to an executable is overrated; don't worry about it.
>
> - There are a lot of Perl books that I can recommend. One that I
> know almost nothing about, but which I think you should look at is
> "Elements of Programming with Perl" by Andrew L. Johnson. This
> book is supposedly written for folks whom Perl will be the first
> programming language that they learn. If you pick it up and choose
> to use it to learn Perl, let me know how it goes. See
>
> http://www.manning.com/Johnson/index.html
>
> for more information.
>
> - You may also wish to read "Choosing a Perl Book" at
>
> http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/06/27/perlbook.html
>
> - Most of the O'Reilly Perl books are worth owning. In particular,
> I recommend "Programming Perl" and "Mastering Regular Expressions".
> However, if you're a true programming neophyte, neither of these
> books will be very accessible.
>
> - I also like "Effective Perl Programming" by Joseph Hall and Randal
> Schwartz.
>
> - Books will only take you so far. The only way to really get good
> at programming is to do it. The more time you spend at it, the
> better you'll get. The cool thing about Perl is that you don't
> have to know very much to get started. You can start experimenting
> with the language almost as soon as you open a book. (People who
> attempt to read an entire Perl book and then write some code are
> definitely doing it wrong.)
>
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