Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 14:24:50 -0500 From: "Jason Holland" <jphollan@earthlink.net> To: "j mckitrick" <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: what language should i learn next ? Message-ID: <NDBBKPLIMKJCOCFNKHBLMEPBDEAA.jphollan@earthlink.net> In-Reply-To: <200009071837.OAA17582@sjt-u10.cisco.com>
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> > > +--- j mckitrick wrote: > | > | | depends on what you want to do. > | | my personal favourite is perl, but i don't know python anyway. > | | you could try all of them and see which one you like most. > | > | I want to avoid that, if possible. I'd like to make an > informed decision > | from the beginning so I can use my time efficiently. I guess > what I want to > | do is learn the tools that require some skill and that are efficient for > | common jobs on a unix box. That way, if the door ever opens for a unix > | career, I would have valuable skills that would set me apart. > But I would > | also like my knowledge to be useful now, on my little > non-networked laptop. > | > | Frankly, since I am not running on a network anyway, I first > need to think > | of some problems that need to be solved, or some tasks that can be > | automated. > | > > If you want to stand apart, learn as many tools as possible. You > should remember that tools are secondary to the problem at hand - the > more tools you know, the better suited you are. I've always found that > to be a bonus in interviews to know a bit about a lot of tools. "I've > used it once or twice, and have some notes. I have a foundation for > when the situation calls for it." Of course you should know a lot > about whatever you're interviewing for ;) > > You should think "I want to create an inverse-thingamajig" instead of > "I need to write something in Perl". Create your thingamajig and then > think "Boy this function was a real dog to write in [Language X]. I > wonder if [Language Y] does this better?" > > If you're looking to choose, my recommendations are: > 1 - Perl - very useful & powerful Jack-of-all-trades language > 2 - Tcl - easy & useful, Tk is very gratifying for a novice > 3 - Java - easy language & very nice, but not very useable - limited > support, and existing implementations are slow. I'll probably get shot > for saying this, but if you know C++ (or even C), you can learn Java in > hours. > > my $0.02 Canadian :) > > -- > Steve Tremblett > Cisco Systems > Ok, if your looking from a programmers point of view, your list of 3 kinda makes sense. but from a strictly unix admin point of view, i cannot see putting tcl and java in front of shell scripting. i think by far shell scripting is more important than those, especially since there are a ton of unix boxes that don't even have java installed, or ever will. from his original post, he is looking to learn "the tools that require some skill and that are efficient for common jobs on a unix box." and that to me screams out shell scripting and perl, right off the bat. my $0.01 rant jason To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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