Re: Book questions
Quoting Iain M Conochie (iain@thargoid.co.uk):
> On 12/04/15 09:33, Petter Adsen wrote:
> >On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 15:51:24 +0800 Bret Busby <bret.busby@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>On 12/04/2015, Petter Adsen <petter@synth.no> wrote:
> >>>Another thing - I have been thinking about also learning Python, for
> >>>instance for interacting with GTK, and for writing things that
> >>>might be hard to do in C. Would that be a good choice, or should I
> >>>look at any other languages before I start?
> >>I am definitely no expert in this, and, others could advise regarding
> >>this, much better than me, but, my understanding is that, for what you
> >>seek, Perl appears to be the answer, as it apparently includes "the
> >>good parts" of various programming languages, including "C", and, is
> >>cross-platform portable, and is supposed to be very versatile.
> >OK, thank you, I will definitely consider Perl also, as I already know
> >a little and have a few books on it.
> >
> >Petter
> IMHO, the issues with perl and python is that you will have to
> understand Object Orientated Programming (OOP) to get the most out
> of them, especially for GUI development. This was one of the reasons
> I drew a blank with perl. This may or may not be the case. Brett,
> any opinion on this?
Oh gosh, I wouldn't just rely on the advice of one or two people here
to make your decision. If you type any of perl vs or python vs
or ruby vs into google and see the suggestions, then click on a
few of them and you will find a lot of knowledgeable discussion of the
issues (amongst a wealth of prejudices, of course).
If the programs/tools you want to write have GUIs, then you're not
going to avoid OOP so that's not really an issue. However,it might
help to see if the way languages handle objects seems natural to
you. And really, that's the case for the languages themselves...what
fits you best. There's also something to be said for seeing what other
people in your field are using as you may want to call upon this
community to help solve problems you run into.
BTW do check the dates of any discussion. These languages are still
actively evolving so opinions date, and change. My recollections of
Perl are from 20th century perl4 and consequently inconsequential:
OOP came with perl5. And perl6 is round the corner (but has been for
a decade). I'm ignorant of Ruby, which is seen as another horse in
this stable (procedural scripting; far from C).
Also bear in mind that while books are fine for learning from, and
consolidating your knowledge, once you start seriously using any
language the web resources will be essential because most books in
this area are out of date before they're even published.
Cheers,
David.
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