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On 12/16/2010 12:14 PM, Michael Moum wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTimUUcekwzZXKV53y9X81WkiFfVh5x0CDB+nyk8=@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I recommend python because it's easy to learn and has
a consistent syntax. The main thing in learning to program is to
understand the concepts, so you want a language where the syntax
doesn't complicate things, and python is perfect for that. Perl's
syntax is horrible - stay away.<br>
<br>
Mike<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Colin
Law <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:clanlaw@googlemail.com">clanlaw@googlemail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
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1ex;">
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<div class="h5">On 16 December 2010 16:59, Parshwa Murdia
<<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:ubuntu.bkn@gmail.com">ubuntu.bkn@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
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</blockquote>
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/snip/<br clear="all">
</blockquote>
<br>
I'm going to have to look into Python. Years ago, before you could
buy or get for free a whole batch of scientifically-related<br>
software, folks in engineering and some other disciplines wrote
their own code to solve cumbersome, repetitive calculations.<br>
Those who were in school a bit later than I studied Fortran, and
used that. It's complicated, and I never learned any of it.<br>
Most of us, in those ancient days--when your mainframe was a
half-continent away and connected to your model 35 Teletype<br>
machine by an acoustic modem, used BASIC. This was not a terrible
language, no matter what anyone says. It suffered mainly from a
lack of the "case" statement. In 1983, I went on to learn
Pascal--the kind without graphics--and found it quite useful to do
the same<br>
sort of work. It suffered from a difficulty of writing control
code; that's where C and C++ came in. I would think that for<br>
general purpose use nowadays (not knowing Python) that C and its
offspring would be the most widely accepted language for<br>
doing almost anything. It's not as clear-cut as Pascal, which is
fairly rigidly constrained--an advantage, in my opinion--but<br>
it's the language that most professional code seems to be written
in, from control of CPUs and microprocessors, to Windows<br>
and Linux and the other Unixes. Also, if you ever desire to progress
to a work situation that requires coding in a common language, <br>
C and/or C++ would almost surely be it.<br>
<br>
One of the responders mentioned syntax: I just took a course in
Bash programming, one of the most commonly used languages <br>
of the Unix/Linux operating systems, and the syntax of that is also
pretty rough. If you don't need it, then don't do it. (If you do<br>
need it, you will have to just put up with it. (Bash, the "Bourne
Again Shell" is an outgrowth of the Bourne Shell, from earlier<br>
Unix days; the other two common ones are the C Shell and the Korn
Shell.)<br>
<br>
--doug-- <br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley</pre>
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