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Programming C, bash, Python, Perl, PHP, Java, you name it. |
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I think Carpetsmoker probably has a good point with his physics book analogy. In the end though it probably depends on the person; some people would find coding below asm more fun then winning the lotto, others wouldn't give a fart, and some would probably quit after hitting arrays (assuming a language that supports them). A thread awhile back that involved peoples kids having a good introduction to computers/etc and finding it to much trouble to do anything fun in writing code and giving up on it, comes to the fore front of my mind.
With the amount of info the OP has given, I don't really think anyone here can do more then give free advice. For something more serious, I'd recommend: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter Norvig. I suppose, that poses the question, does the OP want to learn programming or just learn a programming language? They are as different (in my humble opinion) as building a chair is from using a hammer. Something simple allows one to do both learn to program and learn how to do something useful (with a smaller headache). And the hardest part of initial learning in one language, carries on into making learning other languages much more simple. At least, assuming you're not into enough advanced math or pure genius-like that such baby-steps are trivial. I am young enough to remember the very learning curve that the very basic can have, on people that have no background in it.
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My Journal Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''. |
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What other info could I provide? I had started to learn BASIC back in the 80's and well I haven't needed to learn a programming language. I want to learn one for soemthing to do. I have NO REAL PURPOSE for it, just gives me something else to learn. Oh and I don't expect to be able to learn one over night, and well I have been playing with the idea of learning a programming language for about 10 years now. Just figured I should get off my ass and do it. Just figured I'd ask and see which one would be a good one to start with. I have no desire to be a programmer...I like my job just the way it is
Last edited by Crypt; 20th August 2008 at 12:07 AM. |
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In my experience, people without a problem to be solved, give up learning programming very fast
Why don't you start learning sh shell programming? You run a BSD OS and knowing sh will enable you to write some scripts to help you in administering your own OS.
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You don't need to be a genius to debug a pf.conf firewall ruleset, you just need the guts to run tcpdump |
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Yes. That's what I was trying to say but couldn't think of the right way to say it.
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Anyways there is no harm in learning to be able to read and understand another language. ANSI C is nice. If you know the basics and fundamentals of computer programming, arguably the best book on learning C is K&R's C Programming Language. http://www.amazon.com/Programming-La...9200032&sr=8-1 If you know absolutely nothing about programming, take a look at Perry's Absoulte Beginner's Guide to C and then read K&R's. http://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Begin...9200198&sr=8-1 I just started learning fairly recently myself so I'm much less knowledgeable than most others in this forum so take anything I say with a grain of salt ;-) |
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I generally agree that if you use *nix, you eventually should learn C. And K&R is still a lucid book that teaches the fundamentals well. You can progress to C++ if you want, but you can go a long way on C alone.
I also would not overlook the suggestion for learning shell scripting. This is used a great deal; some respected people on this board cannot program but are accomplished in writing shell scripts. For sysadmin sorts of things (including deciphering ports) this is an incredibly useful skill. So I personally would suggest the latter, but have a great deal of sympathy for the former. Indeed, if you know C, you can pick up scripting and AWK (for example) very quickly. All of the traditional Unix tools use C-like syntax. It does help to have a project in mind. A lot. |
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I use Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide: http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ Many people may hate bash here... I found most of the stuff works in ksh though... but yeh I think it is very useful and the results are immediate.
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She sells C shells by the seashore. |
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I don't think people around here hate bash as much as they hate it when ignorant Linux users, especially those who create software meant to be used on other Unix and Unix-like OSs, assume that the user will have bash installed and it will be in /bin/bash. That's what I hate, anyway.
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Agreed. The same is true of Perl, however, and Perl is more likely to teach you more of the basics of actual programming (having extensive libraries available at the tip of your fingers by CPAN, etc is nice as well.) In reality, learning Perl isn't all that difficult. My personal approach to learning a language is to begin breaking other peoples' working code and then fixing it, then eventually changing it to make it friendlier to my own way of doing things. I've found that this is often a good starting point, for me at least, once I've read one or two chapters in a book to understand the basic syntax and grammar. |
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Having a specification of the grammar available (Scheme for example) can also be helpful.
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My Journal Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''. |
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ruby is very expressive and, to my mind, natural (as in language like). It is also powerful and you see results quick. When you are starting out, that is a good thing as you can concentrate on the algorithm rather than worrying about (sometimes complicated) syntax.
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Well it appears that my ideas of learning a programing language will have to be put on hold as the company I work for wants me to learn web design so that they don't have to pay for a real designer to run our website. The worst part is that they won't pay for me to go to school...hopefully, they will cover the costs of any programs i need to purchase...
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She sells C shells by the seashore. |
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It was very good read, thank you
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...then the God created man... |
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I enjoyed the link man...you have no idea how close to home that hit working here
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