[PJUG Javamail] So Many Languages, So Little Time

[John Degner]

I'd definitely say start with Lisp.  Beginners love oatmeal and fingernail clippings =D !!

I started with Java and think it's wonderful for those with the capacity and drive.  If he's looking for more of a hobby or a short-term win, however, I think he's just fine to start with Apple.  Cocoa is amicable and he could write iphone apps pretty quickly, which may be fun and rewarding for him.

If he really wants to do this for fun I agree with the other responses that he should start with an application in mind and use a tool without the steepest learning curve so that he gets positive reinforcement from quick results.

--John




________________________________
From: Richard Johnson <richardj at lingosys.com>
To: javamail at pjug.org
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:16:43 AM
Subject: [PJUG Javamail] So Many Languages, So Little Time


Hi 
all,
 
I have a friend 
who is a project manager.  He gets joys and heartaches 
associated with seeing that computer games get built on schedule, 
according to spec, and within budget.  He is not a software guy in the same 
sense that we are but more of a people and process person.  He has told me 
a couple of times recently that he wants to learn to do some limited programming 
and/or scripting.  He's slowly teaching himself AppleScript 
now.
 
What language should 
I recommend he learn, why would you recommend it, and do you have a good 
source or pointer for tutorials since he'll probably need to do it mostly on his 
own?  Perl, Ruby, Grails, Java, C, Lisp, Scheme ... something 
else?
   
-- 
Richard Johnson
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