First computer language

Rajiv Vyas rajiv1 at gmail.com
Mon Aug 15 14:16:03 UTC 2005


So, are you suggesting that I should go with a Perl book first or a
book that is more general and focuses on syntax? From what you are
saying and my discussion with few other people, getting the foundation
(understanding the logic in this case) right is very  important.

Thanks,

Rajiv



On 8/15/05, Stephen R Laniel <steve at laniels.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2005 at 09:50:27AM -0400, Rajiv Vyas wrote:
> > I am thinking about learning Perl (other possibilities are Python,
> > Ruby and Lisp). This will be my first computer language. Any
> > suggestions on which books I should buy for absolute beginners in
> > programming and perl?
> 
> The Dummies books are actually good, even though they are
> named badly. Probably there's a Dummies guide to
> programming. Really what you want, as an absolute beginner,
> is some understanding of the logic of computer programming
> generally. In my experience, people without any programming
> experience find the if/then/else construct confusing.
> 
> The "Learning Perl" book is quite good. If you breeze
> through that, the next step up is "Programming Perl," which
> is great.
> 
> I'm curious whether you'd find the Kernighan and Ritchie
> book on C ("The C Programming Language") digestible. I came
> to it with some experience in programming already; it may
> not be as easy for a new programmer, though you should take
> a look at it and see whether it makes sense.
> 
> What you want is an introduction to the syntax that
> you'll be seeing in virtually every program you ever
> encounter. In Perl, C, and C++ you'll see things like
> 
> for( my $i = 0; $i < $someNumber; $i++ ) {
>         someAction();
> }
> 
> though that uses some Perl-specific idioms (namely the
> dollar signs). In C and C++ the same thing would look
> like
> 
> int i, someNumber;
> for( i = 0; i < someNumber; i++ ) {
>         someAction();
> }
> 
> Point being: learning a bit of syntax should help you with a
> large number of languages.
> 
> --
> Stephen R. Laniel
> steve at laniels.org
> +(617) 308-5571
> http://laniels.org/
> PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key
> 
> 
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> 
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