[clue] Budding SW Engineers

[Ryan Frizzell]

Biggest issue with someone who knows very little about programming starting
with something like C revolves around dynamic memory allocation (which
involves pointers as well which can be difficult). Try to build a sweet
dynamic dictionary/hash map in C then try it in python :-). Not to mention
dynamic typing saves a good amount of time as well.

On the flip side people may never learn how thing work under the covers,
understanding how python (or insert language here) achieves all its cool
tricks under the covers is nice to know and comes in handy from time to
time. And dynamic typing has bitten me a few times. Of course they say
Python is strongly typed.



On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 12:45 PM, M Paul Webb <hsechmvt at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I've always heard that it is best to begin with some form of C. You don't
> think so? I don't know program language, but the basics do not look
> difficult. However, what I'm wondering is -- if I invest some time to learn
> a language, then what can I do with it? If there were something fun or
> practical, I might look at some books.
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Raymond DeRoo <rderoo at deroo.net>
> *To:* CLUE's mailing list <clue at cluedenver.org>
> *Cc:* Max G. Allen <mgallen at thegeek.nu>; David T. Willson <
> dtwillson at thegeek.nu>
> *Sent:* Monday, May 7, 2012 12:10 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [clue] Budding SW Engineers
>
> David:
>
> I can't count the number of times I've been asked, "What is the best
> programming language? Which one should I learn first?"
>
> Learn them all, but start with Python, because it's easy, fun, and highly
> capable out-of-the box.
>
>
> And one of few where indentation matters. :)
>
> Next, if you want to get further away from the OS, go Java. If you want to
> get closer to the OS, go bash.
>
>
> I think Java or C, bash isn't a programming language and is further from
> the OS than Java. ( even taking into account the JVM )
>
> And enough JavaScript and perl to get by on.
>
>
> I would have to say the JavaScript is an absolute must unless that have no
> desire to write Internet related code. So many technologies today are
> making use of javascript ( node.js, mongodb, html5, etc ) that anyone not
> learning JavaScript today is doing themselves a huge disservice.
>
> Cheers,
> Raymond
>
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