[Cialug] Hello and can I get some recommendations

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Matthew Nuzum <newz at bearfruit.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Aaron Cooper <darthcooper24 at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>> As for the recommedations I would love some ideas on a good first
>> programming language to learn.  I was thinking about python but i'm open to
>> other ideas.  Also I am interested in good introductory Linux books
>> espically ubuntu.
>>
>>
>
> I would probably ask what your goal for a first language is. I have gone
> back and forth between recommending Python and Javascript. At this point, if
> a person says "I want to make my computer do interesting stuff" then I say
> Python because it's a good general purpose tool. If a person says "I want to
> make games" or anything web related then I say Javascript.
>
> Both are very easy to learn, there are scads of tutorials, books and people
> around to help, even some classes, both online and irl.
>
> The benefit of Javascript for game programming is that you can share your
> work with others. You just tell someone the address for the web-page you
> made and they see it just the same as you. I used to recommend Python
> because of the awesome pygame toolkit but it is very difficult to share your
> games with people when you're new to it, especially if they use Windows.
>
> And obviously I recommend JS for web stuff because it is one of the three
> constants in web programming (along with HTML and CSS). No matter what you
> use to develop your app in the end, JS is useful.
>
> By the way, I'm a web developer and I use Python and CSS.
>
>
(keep in mind I'm a web dev, and the old saying that when you have a hammer,
everything starts to look like a nail)

By the way, if your goal is to make money as quick as possible then I might
have a third recommendation. It seems to me that Ruby, esp Ruby on Rails, is
a valuable commodity these days. And, absolutely no disrespect to any of the
Rails devs I know, it seems to be attracting people who are new to the field
or programming. Very likely because the tool is designed to be so pragmatic
(as in, you get to be productive very quickly).

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter

"My aim has always been to get to the truth rather than to support some
position. And in criticizing others, I have always tried to understand what
their
position was and not to misrepresent it. I have never been interested in
cheap
victories." -Ronald Coase
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