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On Sat, 19 Jan 2002, Simon Waters wrote:
Steve Marvell wrote:On Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 09:20:13PM +0000, David Johnson wrote:As a matter of fact I decided that I would like to learn C/C++ only today.Why C/C++? You only "really" learn these things by using them in anger, and they aren't terribly good programming languages in many ways. Or perhaps I should moderate that to they are built for speed, in much the same way taking the hand brake, and seat belts of a car will make it go slightly faster ;) Of course if you want to become a Linux kernel hacker then C is obligatory, but there are other programming languages....
C is also a good foundation for most modern computer languages - perl, python, ruby, php, Java - most are based around C and C++ syntax and ideas (with their own extra magic or ideas nicked from smalltalk, awk, sed, etc). Much better than learning Pascal or BASIC which have languages like Visual Basic (lacking most features of a REAL language). More importantly most UNIX and Linux software is still written in C - Look at GTK, GNOME, Linux, Apache, FreeBSD, Solaris - all Written in C. C is also the most commonly support language for APIs - pretty much every application provides a C API - Lotus Notes (C and Java), GTK, MySQL, Oracle, etc.
What else have you programmed in? What will you do with this knowledge.
Depending on what You want to do, it is a godo idea to learn C quite well - for instance you can program using GTK really quickly and easily. Then using the programming skills you developed with C you can move to a higher-level language like C++, Java, Perl, Ruby or Python. Perl is a C programmers dream language - it provides 99.99% of C features but also makes the stuff that is awful in C (objects, hashes, networking, I/O) really easy. C++ and Java (which to be honest isn't that amazing) are similar, but it is better to learn C++ a bit before java otherwise you get turned into another Java Drone who can only do Java and then only through this Flashy IDE that does all the hard bits and can only use BEA weblogic and won't ever learn a new language. </bitter>
C++ Programming Language ... a tad heavy for my liking.Seemed okay as a reference to me, lots of good advice on why things are the way they are, and how to use it's strengths, but I kind of learnt it then forgot it, a case of nothing to do with it due to a project not happening.
Yup the only way to learn programming is through experience - most of whats in Stroustrops book you will neither care about or understand until you have had problems that need that particular solution. I try and ensure that I program in C and Perl (my preferred languages) regularly - even if I'm working in something else - Open Source projects are a good source of this : I have 2 or 3 of my own (droogs.org/heron and /autodia). regards, A. -- <A HREF = "http://termisoc.org/~betty";> Betty @ termisoc.org </A> "As a youngster Fred fought sea battles on the village pond using a complex system of signals he devised that was later adopted by the Royal Navy. " (this email has nothing to do with any organisation except me) -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.