Hello all, a few questions for the knowledgable

[Duros]

Hello all and thank you for reading my humble thread!

I'm thinking about checking out computer science when I go back to community college this semester, and I'd like to get my feet wet before I go jumping in. I took computer programming when I was in high school, but that didnt go very well because I had a god awful teacher. We started the first semester learning visual basic, and moved on to some very elementary C++ the next semester.

My question here is, where to start? I just installed Ubuntu onto a secondary partition on my new hard drive, and have been messing around with that. I figured learning linux would be an important skill if I were to push this interest forward. I also would like to start programming again, I have intentions of learning C++, however I dont know if that's the best option. I'm not trying to push this forward as a career choice, programming work apps that is, but more twoards gaining knowledge to wind up in a job where I really want to be.

To summarize the question, should I really bother learning Linux and programming in the OS, and either way, what language am I best learning (Please no web languages or python please :P )

Oh, I should also point out I've been having one hell of a time even installing some drivers such as video card drivers. Always seem to wind up with errors when trying to compile and run it, but that's for another thread.

[fingal]

So what's wrong with Python? I don't programme, but I understand enough to know that you should uncompromisingly learn whatever you want.

[Duros]

So what's wrong with Python? I don't programme, but I understand enough to know that you should uncompromisingly learn whatever you want.

Well it was more of a joke than anything else. Never really seemed like what I really needed to know, however. But I could be wrong

[fingal]

Well it was more of a joke than anything else. Never really seemed like what I really needed to know, however. But I could be wrong

Okay Some suggested reading: Why Python? | Linux Journal

[Vergil83]

Python is a lot easier (I learned doing C). However, since you have already done some programming, I think you could do C++ just fine. The hardest part about programming is that first hill IMHO.

You may also look at java (some people really like it) or even C# (yes, I know that MS created it, but mono is a free/open source implementation of it) since I heard it is quick to get working programs (which always feels good).

[Duros]

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I'll start back into C++, seeing how from what people tell me it's good to learn the object orientation aspect. I'll be sure to check out some of the scripting languages when I can get my understanding of C++ back

[carlosponti]

perl is a nice language that you can do alot with too. and to the question whether you should learn linux programming. Well hell yes not just because of any other reason than you are a programmer and programmers want to learn and are curious if not than you are in the wrong business.