Omari Norman a écrit : > On Mon, Jul 23, 2007 at 10:48:10PM -0700, Paul Rubin wrote: > > >>If you're having trouble with Python because you're new at >>programming, I can sympathize--I don't think it's the most >>beginner-friendly of languages despite the efforts in that direction >>by the designers. > > > Just curious--what language would you recommend as most > beginner-friendly?
C ?-) (sorry, just kidding.) > My previous programming experience was with BASIC--and I think it is > true that BASIC will, in many ways, rot your brain. So will Java. I learned programming with Hypertalk (MacIntosh's Hypercard scripting language, which more or less gave birth to AppleTalk), then RealBasic (Mac's Better VB-like), then VB, then Java, then C, then bits of Pascal, then Python, and this is where I started to see the light. But I had hard time unlearning all those java-ish anal-retentive stupidities and arbitrary overcomplexifications before I really enjoyed Python. Playing with Lisp (Common Lisp and Scheme) and Smalltalk helped getting rid of mental pollution wrt/ declarative static typing. To be honest, playing with Haskell and O'Caml also helped me understanding that static typing is not necessarily bad by itself. > I had used QBasic > and, later, a little VBA and some PHP. It took some time to unlearn some > bad things (object orientation in VBA seems to be mostly a hack, for > example, while PHP seems to be a big hack generally) Well... this is not exactly a scoop !-) > but it seems to me > that Python helped me learn my first modern programming language. > > >>I think Python is not used in university programs very much. Look for >>one that uses SICP (Scheme) or CTM (Mozart/Oz) or a functional >>language like Haskell, in preference to the ones that use Java (the >>Cobol of the 1990's). With some reasonable experience in Scheme or >>Mozart or Haskell, plus a Python manual, you'll be well on your way. > > > I had heard of these languages, but learning them is a bit discouraging > because (Java excepted) they don't seem to get much practical use. Before considering practical use (FWIW, Python was pretty far from mainstream 7 year ago), you should ask yourself how learning one of these languages will affect the way you thing about programming. While mostly in the imperative/OO camp, Python stole quite a lot from functional languages, and this is obviously a GoodThing(tm). My 2 cents -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
