Re: programming language

[mrbbking]

I recommend that you identify the language you plan to use, and learn that one. Other posts have given good suggestions for particular languages.

The mistake I made early on was to try too hard to follow a college-like path. That is, learn Pascal, because it was designed to be a teaching language. Then learn C, because it's the basis for many other languages, then learn C++, because it's object-oriented, and based on C...

I lost interest in Pascal pretty quickly, because I knew I'd never use it after learning it. C was very intimidating at first, and difficult for me to find "useful" things to do so I could see quick progress. I'm the kind of person who wants quick feedback early on, to be sure I'm on the right track.

### Begin Subtle Perl Plug ###
Perl has been great for me because it works at a lot of different levels. In Programming Perl, it's explained in terms of a natural language. A child can communicate using a subset of his native language, even imperfectly. That's true with Perl, too. You don't have to get it all perfect before you start seeing results. Quick feedback facilitates learning.
### End Subtle Perl Plug ###

So, choose the language you want to use - have what you consider to be a Good Reason for choosing that language - and stick with it. Expect to have rough spots, and expect to have to think!

Best of luck to you! Update: Here's the Natural Language thing I was talking about.

[dmmiller2k]

I recommend that you identify the language you plan to use, and learn that one. Other posts have given good suggestions for particular languages.

That kind of turns the question into a chicken-and-egg problem, doesn't it?

To learn "pure" programming, Perl itself may not be the best choice since:

• It permits (and has been known to accidentally work correctly in the face of) major typographical and syntactical errors. This lets one off the hook for what I can only describe as being the, "I did everything right and it still won't ... (compile, run, work, etc.)" class of beginner programming errors -- IMHO, there's no way to become a programmer without experiencing this more times than I care to remember. Of course, these must eventually be resolved with what I think of as "Aha!" moments.
• Loosely, T M T O W T D I (There's more than one way to do it). When learning, it can be confusing finding out that what you thought was the "right way" to do something is merely one of several ways that work, and, in fact, does what you want by accident or as a side effect (to wit, assigning an array element with the all-too-often seen, @array[0] = 'something').
• Examples of "bad" perl programming currently permeate the web. That they happen to work doesn't necessarily mean that they should be emulated. Witness the discussion on PerlMonks about Matt's Script Archive.

At the risk of inviting the wrath of the gods, I'd recommend starting with one of the IDE-based english-like languages (VB comes to mind) just to get a handle on concepts like loops, if-then-else logic and the like, and THEN move up (notice I said "up") to Perl.

dmm

You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day ...
Or, you can teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime

[mrbbking]

That kind of turns the question into a chicken-and-egg problem, doesn't it?

I think it's a chicken and egg problem to begin with...

And I'm not sure how a beginner would get around that. I certainly didn't...

Maybe it's necessary to spend some time with "the wrong language" in order to learn why it's not the one for you. In my case, it didn't take much Pascal for me to realize I didn't want to continue with it. It was too formal for my tastes. I like Perl's informality.

To learn "pure" programming, Perl itself may not be the best choice...

I think you're right. If you want to learn "pure" programming, Perl does way too much for you, behind the scenes. For that sort of thing, maybe the Assember to C to C++ path makes more sense. But I'm getting over my head, here - I don't have deep experience with any of those three, so I could be off base...

As usual, the answer to this question depends on the answer to the question, "What's your goal?" There are any number of paths, but they don't all lead to the same place.
That's is a good thing.