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Dennis Allison wrote: |
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> I don't want to start a flame war, but after an initial love affair I |
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> dont't much like Java. It's not a "better C++", it's a "different C++". I |
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> found the hype associated with the language irritatiing and the lack of |
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> stability as the language evolved unfortunate. But there are places where |
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> the language was useful and I put aside my personal prejudices and worked |
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> with the notation. |
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> |
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> But, I personally don't think Java's a good language for Andrew's |
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> purpose--which is to learn to program. |
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Tom Wesley was the OP, not me :) The point is still valid, though. |
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> In a very real sense, I think assembly lanaguage (or even Hex machine |
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> code) may be a good place to start to learn programming. A good macro |
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> assembler is an awesome tool in the hands of a skilled programmer. Some |
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> beginning programming books--Yale Patt's in particular--adopt the view |
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> that everyone should learn about programming from the bits up. |
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Assembly is something I still wish to learn. Maybe I actually will someday. |
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> My point was/is that programming is language independent. I've always |
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> liked Michael Griffith's comment about programming: "I always use the same |
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> programming language no matter what the compiler" or something like that. |
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> Using a polymorphic, internally consistent, object-oriented language like |
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> Python is a good framework to learn programming. I think Python does a |
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> pretty good job of capturing the abstractions you need to write simple, |
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> conceptually clear programs. You don't have to worry about the nits, you |
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> can program interactively and see what happens, and there's not the huge |
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> overhead of type mechanisms to drag into every single little program. The |
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> language is introspective (aka introspective) so programs can learn about |
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> their own structure. |
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Perl is good for mostly the same reasons, which is why it's my current language of choice. |
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> But ultimately the only way to learn about programming is to read programs |
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> and work with masters in the field. It's still an art not a science. |
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-- |
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Andrew Gaffney |
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Network Administrator |
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Skyline Aeronautics, LLC. |
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636-357-1548 |
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-- |
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