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Trent

Member

From: Baltimore, MD (US)

Registered: 2009-04-16

Posts: 990

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

C is really a very simple language (apart from its unbelievably horrible pointer declaration syntax)

I have to disagree on this point.  Declaration reflects use:

int x;          // x is an int
int *x;         // *x is an int
int (*x)(void); // (*x)() is an int
int *(*x)[50];  // *(*x)[0..49] is an int

If you know what operations are being performed on a name to make it into a $TYPE, and have a good grasp of precedence, constructing and interpreting declarations is pretty straightforward.  Where you might run into trouble is with initializations, where the behavior is a little different:

int x = 1;  // sets x to the integer 1
int *x = 1; // sets x to the pointer value 1 -- oops

But it still makes sense once you get used to it -- after all, in the second initialization above you couldn't initialize *x because x doesn't yet point to anything and can't be dereferenced, so the only logical meaning of the initialization would be to set x itself.

I'm now going to apologize for helping to drag this thread off topic, and go curl up in a hole somewhere...

Last edited by Trent (2010-04-19 01:29:02)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

Personally, I feel that everyone should learn the fundamentals of Haskell. It's a language that's unique in that no one actually understands it but things are in fact getting done. For instance, xmonad wrote itself under the promise that it could be executed at some time, but wouldn't bother to take up any space until then. This, of course, makes no sense at all. But, it is and I'm using it.

Bralkein

Member

Registered: 2004-10-26

Posts: 354

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

It's quite heavy going for a beginner programmer, but if you can manage it I would whole-heartedly recommend Thinking In C++ Volumes 1 & 2 by Bruce Eckel. Since he's such a nice guy the books are available for free download on the web (100% legit). When I started programming I learnt so much from these books because everything is explained so thoroughly. Although C++ is a bit of a gnarly language, you really get to learn the intricate rationale behind the design of the language, and in doing so you will gain a broad understanding of many things which will be useful to you in any language, not just C++.

It's well worth the read if you can wrap your mind around it all as a beginner. Linky.

A Future Pilot

Member

Registered: 2008-10-17

Posts: 120

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

OK, thanks everyone for all the info!!

I think I'll go Python, then C, then C++, then see where I am then, and what type of stuff I think I need, and go from there.

Thanks again! :-)

marvin

Member

From: Milk Way Galaxy

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 19

Website

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

Scheme, C and Go. In that order.

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"One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code." — Ken Thompson

g0ju

Member

From: Chemnitz, Germany

Registered: 2009-08-08

Posts: 23

Re: [Solved] What language to learn?

Scheme, C and Go. In that order.

Why did you suggest Go?

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