Just some additional comments, mostly on perl.
> Perl is good, because it can be better than bash for some systems
> administration tasks. Plus, Perl has much functionality; it's
> definitely at least considerably powerful, and being a scripting
> language, you don't need to deal with compiling, which makes or can make
> it useful for rad (rapid application development). Scripting is very
> nice for many reasons, and Perl is a mighty scripting language.
It is very good at text manipulation. Memory allocation and deallocation
is a breeze. Definitely not the hassle it is in C/C++. It has a strong
community. It has a huge repository of modules (CPAN).
The perl home page:
http://www.perl.com
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network perl module repository:
(If you need it a module, it's probably there.)
http://www.cpan.org
> - python (haven't done any work with python, but it seems to be used a
> fair amount - you'll find a fair number of python scripts, which has
> also been integrated with Perl),
I don't know what you mean by it being intergrated with perl. They're two
completely seperate languages. I'm just starting to read up on python. It
could possibly be better than perl.
> At that level, though, you'ld want to learn some of the servers, Apache
> being a core one as far as internet/intranet development would be
> concerned. Perl has a module for interfacing with the Apache server,
> now, too.
Apache: http://www.apache.org
That module is mod_perl. http://perl.apache.org/ I suggest you get a good
grip on perl before looking at mod_perl. Basically, it's an extention for
the Apache web server that allows one to write extentions for Apache in
perl. It's not a language, just an interface to Apache's API. It replaces
CGI but does much more. (Actually, CGI scripts can be run over mod_perl
provoding they meet some requirements.)
mod_perl has an excellent mailing list.
> There's a fair amount of documentation installed on your Linux system,
> once Perl is installed.
man perl
That documentation is a reference, not programming lessens i.e. it assumes
you already know how to program, and gives you the specifics of perl.
> If you're just starting out programming, then bash and Perl should be
> two good places to begin.
If you do want to learn perl, the O'Reilley books (for perl and otherwise)
are considered bibles. These should be available jus about anywhere.
> SQL is a 4GL, 4th generation language, and very English-like; therefore,
> it's not a monumental feat to learn. It's powerful, but there's much
> less need for developing programs to access, manipulate and store data.
> The underlying aspect with respect to data organization or
> normalization, though, is critical to developing good relational
> databases.
However, it's limited to querying and updating databases. SQL commands are
usually issued from other programs, written in C, perl, java, whatever.
--
Eric L. Brine | Chicken: The egg's way of making more eggs.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Do you always hit the nail on the thumb?
ICQ# 4629314 | An optimist thinks thorn bushes have roses.
