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Recommendations please

searcher7 at my-deja.com searcher7 at my-deja.com
Thu Aug 17 16:29:46 EDT 2000 
Thanks a lot! I'm looking into setting up Freebsd on my system.(I'm
trying to stay as far away from Windows as I can). So I'm hoping this
won't be a problem.

Thanks again.

Darren Harris (Searcher7 at mail.con2.com)

************************************************************************

In article <8ngm0902as2 at news2.newsguy.com>,
  "Alex Martelli" <alex at magenta.com> wrote:
> <searcher7 at my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:8ngfnl$d7u$1 at nnrp1.deja.com...
> > I've set a goal to eventually write my own language. Since I'm a
total
> > newbie, I was advised to start with "Python", then "JPython". Learn
> > Java, and then progress to C++.(Which I was told was too difficult
for
> > a beginner's first language. I would appreciate any recommedations
on
> > beginner books on "Python".
>
> My current favourite is "The Quick Python Book" by Daryl Harms and
> Kenneth McDonald, published by Manning Publications.  It explicitly
> says that you should have some superficial language of some one
> programming language before you start; but don't know of any *books*
> that claim to teach Python to somebody who's never programmed before
> in any language at all.
>
> On the other hand, there are *online documents* that might help
> you get started from a zero-point.  One is
>     http://yhslug.tux.org/obp/thinkCS/thinkCSpy/
> by Allen B. Downey, Jeffrey Elkner and Moshe Zadka; although this
> page strangely spells 'classess' with four 's' overall, it's still
> a very worthwhile document; I suggest you start with it, or with
> something similar, before moving on to Harms' and McDonald's book.
>
> You should also download and install a working version of Python
> to get maximum benefit from any book or online document; whenever
> something is presented with a prompt of '>>>' in documents or
> books about Python, it means you can enter code at an interactive
> interpreter and try it out.
>
> http://www.python.org/download/download_windows.html links to
> several places where you can download by HTTP or FTP the py152.exe
> installation-package (5 megabyte), which is all you need if you
> use Windows/NT, /95, /98, or /2000; for other platforms (Python
> runs just about anywhere!) see http://www.python.org/download/.
>
> I think you have been very well advised, by the way -- at least
> as for starting, Python is a great way to go.  Once you have
> that under your belt, and well-digested, where to go next is a
> matter of opinion -- JPython/Java/C++ is one route, but there
> are others, including staying with Python and designing your
> own language's first-cut with it (oh yes you can -- though it
> will not run as fast as when [re]-implemented in C++, you can
> perfectly well develop a compiler and interpreter in Python!).
>
> One option you may consider after Python is to get Scheme and
> a copy of Abelson and Sussman's "The Structure and Interpretation
> of Computer Programs".  There is really nothing better than
> Lisp dialects (Scheme excellent among them) to expose a LOT
> about "what's truly happening inside", unless it be machine
> code; and Abelson and Sussman's book is in my shortlist of the
> very best computer-science books ever written (Knuth's "The Art
> of Computer Programming", at the very top of that list, does
> use machine-code as its expressive vehicle; Kernighan and
> Pike's "The Practice of Programming" relies on C; apparently
> such languages are very conducive to excellent writing -- I
> hear Jon Louis Bentley's "Programming Pearls", another of my
> favourites, has come out in a new edition also based on C!-).
>
> But, this is all very much "by the by".  For now, starting with
> Python is an excellent idea -- and while other languages will
> possibly expand your horizons in the future, I suspect you'll
> find yourself coming back to Python.  No other language that I
> know of is quite so good for both beginners AND experts!-)
>
> Alex
>
>


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