Re: Learn a Variety of Languages . . . . . . . (was: Re: [tlug] Re: Bourne Shell is the most appropriate scripting language)

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> On 16 janv. 07, at 11:28, Jim wrote:
>
> > Nguyen Vu Hung wrote:
> >
> > > Actually, I am thinking of learning other languages like python and/or 
> > > ruby.
> > > Please share your opinions.
> >
> > You should learn a variety of languages.
>
> Lisp: Practical Common Lisp" @ Apress.

Lisp or Scheme is very good to learn. However, you might want to start
out with _The Little Schemer_ first; it will get you used to the "feel"
of recursion (as opposed to iteration), which will make life more
comfortable in Lisp-land.

You definitely want to learn a functional language at some point, and
preferably sooner rather than later. I'd actually recommend Haskell,
since it does some fascinating things that other languages Just Don't
Do. Paul Hudak's _The Haskell School of Expression_ is good.

For "scripting," Ruby is definitely better than perl, though it's not a
very consistent language. I've yet to hear a good argument for chosing
Ruby over Python or vice versa; they seem as much of a muchness. (I know
very little Python, however.)

cjs
--
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974