Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
Hi,
I am absolutely new to programming language. Dont have any programming
experience. Can some one guide me please. is python a good start for
novice.
Thanks,
Kaushal
Like nearly all questions, the answer is "it depends."
Mainly, it depends on what your goal is. In my case, I made my living
with programming, for many years. And in the process, learned and used
about 35 languages, plus a few more for fun. I wish I had discovered
Python much earlier, though it couldn't have been my first, since it
wasn't around. But it'd have been much better than Fortran was, for
learning.
So tell us about your goals. Abstract knowledge, console utilities, gui
development, games, web development, networking communication, ...
Next, you might want to evaluate what you already know. There are a lot
of non-programming things that a programmer needs to understand. If you
already know many of them, that's a big head start. If you already know
how to administer a Linux system, you're already a programmer and didn't
know it. If you write complex formulas for Excel, you're a programmer.
If you already know modus ponens, and understand what a contrapositive
is, you've got a head start towards logic (neither is a programming
subject, just a start towards logical thinking). If you've worked on a
large document, and kept backups of incremental versions, so you could
rework the current version based on earlier ones, that's a plus. If you
know why a file's timestamp might change when you copy it from hard disk
to a USB drive and back again, you've got a head start. If you know why
it might have a different timestamp when you look at it six months from
now without changing it, you've got a head start.
If you're using Windows and never used a command prompt, you have a ways
to go. If you don't know what a file really is, or how directories are
organized, you have a ways to go. And if you think a computer is
intelligent, you have a long way to go.
Python is a powerful tool. But if you're totally new to programming, it
can also be daunting. And most people have no idea how easy some
programs are, nor how hard some other programs are, to build.
In any case, some of the things recommending Python as a first language are:
1) an interactive interpreter - you can experiment, trivially
2) very fast turnaround, from the time you make a change, till you
can see how it works. This can be true even for large programs
3) this mailing list
DaveA
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