[Tutor] Which programming language is better to start with

[Erik Price]

On Tuesday, March 26, 2002, at 05:46  PM, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:

> In my experience people who start on the high level languages and then 
> try to
> go low level often find it hard to fit in.  They are too used to the 
> language
> doing everything for them.  Of course the opposite is sometimes true 
> and we
> find C coders trying to implement hashes themselves or who never check 
> if a
> python module exists before reinventing the wheel.
>
> I started in C, worked up to C++ and then learned perl, lisp and python.
> Having started in C where I had nothing I learned to be good at managing
> resources and careful planning.  It was hard though.  No doubt.

I'm afraid of this very same thing.

I never received any formal instruction in programming.  A few months 
ago, I started learning PHP, and feel very comfortable doing basic tasks 
with that language (data processing, database access, typical web app 
stuff).  I have always wanted to learn Python, though, for even longer 
than I've known of PHP, so I am tackling that too.  But often -- REALLY 
often -- I see a lot of references to things that I know are C-related.  
It can be anything from "this language is based on C's construct..." to 
"similar to the C function 'printf' ..." or even simple references like 
"garbage collection", which I now know that a Python programmer can 
pretty much get by without ever hearing in their life but it is an issue 
that is of concern to C programmers.

Yet, if C is the language that Unix and operating systems and games are 
written in, then it must truly be a complex thing, right?  Like assembly 
language, only a little higher?

A few weeks ago I was in a library and saw a book on C programming, so I 
started reading it.  It was "a C Primer" or something (there's probably 
fifty of those).  I was pleased to find that it wasn't really that 
intimidating at all, and in fact the syntax strongly resembled that of 
PHP.  It was a strange feeling, to understand what was going on in the 
simple examples of the first few chapters that I read.

I would really like to learn more about it, if only to get a more 
foundational education in the way programming is done, but when I 
consider how little time I have for hobbyist programming, I am convinced 
that I am best off learning something like Python, which will hopefully 
let me get off the ground more quickly in terms of writing useful 
scripts and programs.

One of these days I shall surely have to take a class in programming.



Erik