What programming language to learn?

**unobtanium** · 11-19-2005

Ok - I know that this may cause some slight differences of opinion but what language would you reccommend would be the best to start with for a decent Linux base knowledge?
I want to teach myself so I must be able to do it from books or the the net and I have no previous knowledge - I am an absolute beginner
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as Christmas is coming and people keep asking what i want.
PS
Why doesn't the spell chekker work?

**Vergil83** · 11-19-2005

this isn't exactly what you are asking, but it is worth a quick look
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-55320.html

oz · 11-19-2005

Consider trying Python, or Ruby.

**bryansmith** · 11-19-2005

Python and Perl are good choices. Java is pretty good too and there are lots of books for Java.

Bryan

**GNOME_n00b** · 11-19-2005

i wouldn't recommend perl for a newbie. it can be confusing in many places. python, C sharp, and java are amongst the best, depending upon what you want to do. don't bother with C and C++ - they're not recommended for a newbie.
i think java is one of the cleanest and most elegant of languages because its pure object oriented. its also portable and there are more jobs in java than any other language (or so ive heard).

**AlexK** · 11-19-2005

Originally Posted by GNOME_n00b

don't bother with C and C++ - they're not recommended for a newbie.

Actually I'd think that C is the perfect language for a newbie to learn as pretty much all modern languages are based to some extent on C. Once you grasp the major concepts behind C, it is then a relatively easy task to pick up other languages. Also, I thought C# was only for MS Visual Studio and was not used much.

Other than C, I'd say go for Python or Perl

**eerok** · 11-19-2005

I'd recommend python because:

it's fairly easy to learn
it's very useful for both little nuts-and-bolts things as well as larger gui apps
there's lots of free books and resources for it
it works well with C (the language unix was written in)
you can use it for cgi on web apps
it's probably already installed on your linux box

For a popular, all-purpose, high-level language, it's hard to beat.

**unobtanium** · 11-19-2005

Wow I expected some response but not this much - thanks very much to you all. Python seems to be the favorite so far.
My biggest problem is that I dont know what I want to do with the language once I have learnt it - but there again what knowledge is wasted?

**AlexK** · 11-19-2005

Originally Posted by unobtanium

My biggest problem is that I dont know what I want to do with the language once I have learnt it

How about this, make something useful and then release it to the rest of the world. (As open source of course).

**unobtanium** · 11-19-2005

Good idea maybe I could call it Windows Vista?

Thread Tools

Display

What programming language to learn?

Posting Permissions