[ale] Language Jihad!

[Transam@cavu.com]

Dow Hurst <dhurst at kennesaw.edu> wrote:
> I have wanted to learn a programming language for a while now.  My
> thoughts were first with Perl for sysadmin.  Later, I thought I'd go
> with Python to get Object Oriented type code but still have the string
> manipulation capabilities.  Right now, Barnes and Noble has a C++ class
> online I am trying out.  Also, I discovered Ruby which has high praises
> for useability and versatility.  Tcl is interesting and people have
> praised Ada95 to me.  I am a bit confused over the whole "what is best"
> thing and believe that whatever will get the job done with the least
> fuss and bother is probably best.  I've bought books but until I get
> really fired up and believe I am on the "right" track, I just lose
> interest!

For SysAdmin work, I would start with sed and shell scripting (tcsh or bash).
Then Perl as that's so popular, then Python.  The awk language was the
Perl of its day and still has a few tricks; I never got 'round to learning
it.

If you want to go more hardcore, Java is the hot thing.  Alternatively,
for writing servers, large applications, and system programming I'd suggest
C.  I realize that I'm in the minority in thinking that C++ is junk that
should be vaporized when the powers that be also vaporize other evil such
as M$.

> I really had a laugh over the "Language Holy War" email replies over the
> html link sed regexp question by Christopher Bergeron!
> <trying to clean up coffee spilled from hilarious laughter with pages
> from Solomon's "Organic Chemistry">

> <I hated Organic Chemistry!>

> Can someone convince me which is the best all around language to use? 
> Seems that C++ isn't so difficult but I really like Ruby and Perl for
> the simplicity of how much code you have to write to get something done.

> Of course, I really enjoy piping basic unix commands together such as:

>  grep -n 'chemical connectivity' inputfile |
>  awk -v FS=: '{print($1)}' |
>  xargs -i echo " -e '{},{} s/0X    4 /0X   11 /g' \"
>  >> output_sed_script.txt

> Now that was fun!!
> Dow
> __________________________________________________________
> Dow Hurst                   Office: 770-499-3428
> Systems Support Specialist  Fax:    770-423-6744
> 1000 Chastain Rd.
> Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
> Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
> Kennesaw, GA 30144
> ***************************************
> *Computational Chemistry is hard work!*
                              ^^^^^^^^^^
Didn't this used to be "fun"?
> ***************************************

Bob Toxen
transam at cavu.com                       [Bob's ALE Bulk email]
bob at cavu.com                           [Please use for email to me]
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