Re: [newbie] OT/semi-lenghty: Any advice for a newbie programmer?

[Frank]

And with your limited time, should you decide "C" then drop me a line, 
'cause I'm interested and know that two heads are always better than 
one! ( Frank at Snapafun.co.nz ) [Have started reading 'Sams Teach 
Yourself C for Linux Programming. Hoyt is right - not easy but a 
manageable challenge.]

Regards
Frank
Big or small, a challenge requires the same commitment to resolve.
Registered Linux User # 324213 


Hoyt Bailey wrote:
On Tuesday 15 June 2004 18:06, Marv Boyes wrote:
 

Hello, everyone. I realize that this isn't a developer's list, but I 
   

get 
 

the sense that there are more than a few developers here, and some of 
the sharpest people I've yet encountered online. I'm looking for some 
sage wisdom. ;)

I haven't done any serious programming since Extended BASIC for Texas 
Instruments' TI-99/4A. I lost interest in programming shortly after my 
father brought our first Windows 3.1 machine into the house-- it was 
easier to just accept what Microsoft fed me. Linux has gotten me 
interested in learning how to do things for myself again, and I've had 
   

a 
 

great time reading about the mindset and culture of coding. Having 
gotten a fair handle on bash scripting, I'm interested in moving on to 
something a little more advanced. Quite frankly, I'm a little 
overwhelmed by the possibilities.

These are a few of my liabilities and limitations: I'm in human 
   

services 
 

management, which means I work long hours, and I'm on-call 24 hours, 7 
days a week. With my non-professional duties around the house, I don't 
end up with a lot of leisure time. I've been isolated from the nuts 'n 
bolts aspects of development, on any level, for a very long time. Even 
two years after going "all Linux, all the time", I am still quite the 
newbie. And despite a fair amount of research, I unfortunately don't 
have the vaguest notion of which languages/development environments 
   

are 
 

best for which purposes (for that matter, I have no real purpose yet, 
other than to learn a bit about programming).

Essentially, I don't imagine for a moment that my life will grant me 
   

the 
 

time to become a serious programmer; at the same time, I certainly 
   

don't 
 

expect to be able to code my own kernel or office suite from scratch 
after a couple of days' study. I'm looking for a realtively gentle 
introduction to programming in some sort of "standard" environment, to 
see if it's something I can get both my mind and my interest around.

I'm interested in knowing which languages are favored by some of the 
"hobbyist" developers on this list, and why. Is there a particular 
programming/scripting language which seems to naturally lend itself to 
the beginner (while still being rich enough to produce some useful, if 
not particularly 'killer', applications)? Relatively easy to learn; 
powerful enough to create something other Linux users might find 
   

useful, 
 

should I stick with it long enough. Should I dive right into C, or 
   

might 
 

I be better-served by learning something about, for instance, Python 
   

or 
 

Perl? And if I _really_ get nuts about programming and decide that I 
want to give GUI-driven apps a try, are there languages which would 
   

lend 
 

themselves to something like, say, gtk (or is that a language in 
   

itself? 
 

See, utter newbie...).
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts; feel free to respond off-list if 
this post shouldn't have been here in the first place. ;)

Thanks,
Marv
   

You may regret asking this question.  I would recommend C, once you get 
a handle on that then progress to C++ and when you master those you can 
do anything. I started with "The C Programming Language" (The White 
Book) by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M Ritchie.Copyright 1978.  They 
were the developers of C and rewrote UNIX in C so that we now have 
Linux. Dont assume that C is easy, it isnt,  it is an exercise in logic 
like you may not have experienced before.

 

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____________________________________________________
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
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