[Tutor] Which programming language is better to start with

Danny Yoo dyoo@hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu
Tue, 26 Mar 2002 13:54:24 -0800 (PST)


> On one weeb site that I went to, it said that it was better to start
> with Python or Perl.

Always take testimonials with a grain of salt.  *grin*

But that being said, I think that Python or Perl is a great place to
start.  Other possible languages include C or Java.  C is also a fairly
good starting language, and exposes much more of the raw machine to you.
(This may be a good or bad thing depending on your temper and
personality.)


> It stated that Python was more easier and Perl was more useful. I have
> tried Python but, where I live, resources are very limited and I couln't
> find much to help learn Python. They did have a few Perl books at the
> library.

You can find a lot of Python resources on the web site.  In particular,
here's a link to the "Beginners Tutorials" section:

    http://python.org/doc/Newbies.html

so there's a wealth of information you can use to learn Python.  And you
also have us.  *grin*

Feel free to pick a tutorial and start running with it, and when you have
questions, you're always welcome to ask here.  We'll be glad to talk about
them.

(Perl also provides pretty nice support at the web site:
http://learn.perl.org.  Both languages host user communities with helpful
folk.)


> The reason for which I started to learn to program was to program
> videogames for fun. Any ideas about what to do?

Python has a nice library called Pygame that you can use to make your
games:

    http://pygame.org

I'm not so sure about Perl, so you may want to ask on learn.perl.org on
that one.


Best of wishes to you!