newbie programmer Looking for guidance..

[slacker_x]

First a little bit about my experience:

I took a couple of intro programming courses last year at university. They were taught with java. The focus was teaching you HOW to program using java as a tool to do this. In other words, we didn't do much that had any immediate practical use. We studied data structures and programming techniques.

This was kind of interesting to me, but I really prefer to learn by doing practical things rather than learning theory, so I tried to teach myself a bit of C++ at the same time. The problem was that I never really made it to anything more advanced than what I did with Java. I was learning both Java and C++ on a windows platform using an IDE (codewarrior).

I was a bit turned off because it seemed like quite a jump before I could do anything practical (ie. design my own app with a GUI).

This year in school I took a course which had a large section on assembly programming for the 68hc11. I have moved completely to linux now. I taught myself some perl for cgi programming. I've also taught myself a bit of php.

I liked perl because I could do real-life things almost straight away.

I want to learn how to program applications over the summer, so an interpreted language like perl won't do.

What do you think I should learn? I wan't to design portable applications with graphical interfaces under linux.

links appreciated. I don't have a lot of cash to go out and drop on books. I generally prefer online tutorials more anyway.

thanks for reading

[kmj]

Well for starters, don't think you can't use perl just because it's interpreted. Technically, everythings interepreted, compiled programs are just interpreted by the OS.

If you're completely on linux, I'd say use kdevelop and check its documentation for using Qt; Qt is a nice toolset for quickly creating C++ programs.

[jemfinch]

Originally posted by slacker_x:
I liked perl because I could do real-life things almost straight away.

I want to learn how to program applications over the summer, so an interpreted language like perl won't do.


Why not? Lots of interpreted languages have GUIs.


What do you think I should learn? I wan't to design portable applications with graphical interfaces under linux.


Then learn and use python. Tkinter is a standard graphical toolkit from which you can make portable graphical applications for windows, linux, and macintosh.

Check out the link in my .sig, and go to "documentation." Take a look at the tutorial. Learn to love it, because Python r00lz! :)

Jeremy

[slacker_x]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be wise to use something like C++ where the source is compiled and then can be exexuted quickly rather than something like perl or python?

I've never actually used python, but I didn't think there was a compiler involved.

I would rather not use an IDE like kdevelop in linux so that i can really understand what's going on.


I am of the opinion that I should use the right language for the job and not try and extend it outside of what it was meant to do. I guess that's why I am a bit hesitant to develop a graphical application with perl. Wasn't it designed with text processing in mind?


thanks for the help

[Ben Briggs]

slacker_x:

Something you learn real soon, is to not dispute people like jemfinch and kmj :D.

On the topic you asked about though, I'd vote Python for a great beginner's language. But there are also many advanced programmers that use it too :). I've heard it said by many advanced programmers that Python is the only language they look foreword to using every day.

If you're insistant on a compiled language, I'll put a vote in for C or Java. Java is far more portable with they're WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere). The disadvantage to Java is the JVM startup time, but once that's done it's a fast as languages like C and C++.

[slacker_x]

Thanks ben

I guess I'll stay with perl and try some python.

Can someone point me in the direction of a good online python tutorial for someone who understands the concept of subroutines and looping, but not the syntax of them?

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Also, you may want to go to my sourceforge page at http://tapper.sourceforge.net and check out the "Tools" page. It has lot of links to free Java tutorials, Java Editors, Java JDK, Java this, Java that, and even some Java stuff as well.

AND, if my current job search turns up a company with better ethics and pay than the current disaster then I'll have time to actually work on that sorceforge project again. And your help would certainly be appreciated.

[Ben Briggs]

Originally posted by slacker_x:
<STRONG>Can someone point me in the direction of a good online python tutorial for someone who understands the concept of subroutines and looping, but not the syntax of them?</STRONG>

Python.org (http://www.python.org) has a good tutorial, also How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, Python Edition (http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/) is pretty good.

[kmj]

Originally posted by Dru Lee Parsec:
<STRONG>
AND, if my current job search turns up a company with better ethics and pay than the current disaster then I'll have time to actually work on that sorceforge project again. And your help would certainly be appreciated.</STRONG>

Hey, man. A little while ago I was gonna ask about that since we both shifted jobs at almost exactly the same time. I guess I won't now. :) Sorry to hear about it.


Something you learn real soon, is to not dispute people like jemfinch and kmj


Me; my words are disputable. Half of what I say is unresearched, and the other half is complete BS. :)

Seriously, you won't notice a big performance hit with python or perl, unless something you're doing is really time-sensitive, like an embedded system or something... I'd also suggest python, even though I haven't learned it myself, because I've heard so much about how good a language it is for beginners; perl's the opposite, it's bad for beginners because it's so easy to do things sloppily.

Just as long as you're enjoying it, then it's all good.

[slacker_x]

I'm working through the tutorial at python.org right now. So far it seems that the level of assumed knowledge and difficulty is perfect for me.