[ale] Language Jihad!

[Joseph A. Knapka]

MHO:

If you have no programming experience, Python is an excellent
starting point. It lets you do all the cool greppy/scripty
stuff people like Perl for, but it's a very great deal
easier to undestand. (I learned Perl with six years of
C/C++ experience, but it was tough to pick up, and Perl's
reference syntax still doesn't make intuitive sense to me.
I wrote my first significant Python app, an SNMP MIB
compiler, the same week I picked up "Learning Python.")
Python will also expose you to object orientation in a
very nice way. It's flexible enough to do most anything
you want it to, unless you want to do computational
chemistry or something like that (very CPU-intensive), in
which case you'll need something faster. But with Python
under your belt, I think you'll find C, C++, Tcl, Perl (maybe),
any dialect of BASIC, Pascal, etc. pretty easy to pick up.
And Python's rigid formatting conventions will instill
programming habits that will serve you well in any
language you learn later.

And for something completely different, I'd recommend picking
up a bit of Intel assembly. Or at least reading through
Randall Hyde's "The Art of Assembly Language Programming" at
<URL: http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/Page_asm/ArtofAssembly/ArtofAsm.html>
An understanding of assembly will prepare you to understand
the ways different languages abstract the underlying hardware,
which can sometimes be important, especially when debugging.
Someone (can't remember who) said that if you are working
at a particular level abstraction, you really need to
understand what's going on at the level below and the level
above in order to work effectively, and in my experience
that's very true.

-- Joe

Dow Hurst wrote:
> 
> I have wanted to learn a programming language for a while now.  My
> thoughts were first with Perl for sysadmin.  Later, I thought I'd go
> with Python to get Object Oriented type code but still have the string
> manipulation capabilities.  Right now, Barnes and Noble has a C++ class
> online I am trying out.  Also, I discovered Ruby which has high praises
> for useability and versatility.  Tcl is interesting and people have
> praised Ada95 to me.  I am a bit confused over the whole "what is best"
> thing and believe that whatever will get the job done with the least
> fuss and bother is probably best.  I've bought books but until I get
> really fired up and believe I am on the "right" track, I just lose
> interest!
> 
> I really had a laugh over the "Language Holy War" email replies over the
> html link sed regexp question by Christopher Bergeron!
> <trying to clean up coffee spilled from hilarious laughter with pages
> from Solomon's "Organic Chemistry">
> 
> <I hated Organic Chemistry!>
> 
> Can someone convince me which is the best all around language to use?
> Seems that C++ isn't so difficult but I really like Ruby and Perl for
> the simplicity of how much code you have to write to get something done.
> 
> Of course, I really enjoy piping basic unix commands together such as:
> 
>  grep -n 'chemical connectivity' inputfile |
>  awk -v FS=: '{print($1)}' |
>  xargs -i echo " -e '{},{} s/0X    4 /0X   11 /g' \"
>  >> output_sed_script.txt
> 
> Now that was fun!!
> Dow
> 
> --
> __________________________________________________________
> Dow Hurst                   Office: 770-499-3428
> Systems Support Specialist  Fax:    770-423-6744
> 1000 Chastain Rd.
> Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
> Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
> Kennesaw, GA 30144
> ***************************************
> *Computational Chemistry is hard work!*
> ***************************************
> --
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-- Joe Knapka
"You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
 can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
// Linux MM Documentation in progress:
// http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
* Evolution is an "unproven theory" in the same sense that gravity is. *
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