Re: help needed

[Daniel Robbins <drobbins@obgyn.unm.edu>]

A good way to get familiar with the whole Linux programming thing is
to learn "Python", an interpreted language.  It will be easier for you
to do real stuff in it.  Once you are comfortable programming useful
stuff in Python, the transition to C will be easier.  You can actually
then start rewriting just a part of your program in C, and learn a step
at a time how to do useful stuff in C.  Otherwise, learning C can be 
frustrating, because you really need to have a well-rounded grasp of
C to do anything useful in it.  It's sort of a cache-22, because you need
to *practice* to gain that well-rounded grasp of C, but for a beginner it
takes a *lot* of hard work to write a useful/cool program, and at the
beginning it is easy to get discouraged.  Learning Python first will
make the whole process more rewarding -- if you can't figure out how to
do something in C, you can implement it in Python (for the time being).
That way, you can get "the job done" without hitting a C roadblock.

I recommend this because of my own personal experience trying to learn C
in high school -- It took me a while to get familiar with C, not only the
language but how to compile stuff, do file i/o, etc.  I ended up programming
things that I needed in AREXX (a scripting language for the Amiga).  It
ran slower, but that way I was able to make useful stuff and it took the
pressure off so that I could learn C at my own pace.  C can take a while
to learn mainly because of the huge number of low-level function calls
you need to be intimately familiar with.

You can find out more about Python at "www.python.org", and they have
excellent online documentation.

On Thu, Feb 19, 1998 at 07:54:42PM -0800, Fook_Sheng Chan wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I wish to become a debian developer, but I don't know where to start.
> I can program in C, but I must admit that I'm not very good.
> 
> Can someone guide me along?
> 
> chan
> 
> ______________________________________________________
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> 

-- 

 Daniel Robbins           "IKnowMen;AndITellYouThatJesusChristIsNotAMan.Superf
 System Administrator      icialMindsSeeAResemblanceBetweenChristAndTheFounders
 Department of OB/GYN      OfEmpires,AndTheGodsOfOtherReligions.ThatResemblance
 University of New Mexico  DoesNotExist...BetweenHimAndWhoeverElseInTheWorld
 drobbins@obgyn.unm.edu    ThereIsNoPossibleTermOfComparison." --Napoleon