[wplug] about basic programming

[J Aaron Farr]

>
> On Mar 3, 2005, at 5:35 PM, Steve Bierly wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> I want to learn everything I can about programming and
>> many types of linux.

Wonderful!

I think it's important to "separate concerns". :)

HTML is a publishing language not really a programming language.  It's
good to learn, but it involves different skills than programming.  Also,
learning HTML is easy.  So don't worry about it yet.

If you want to really learn some programming, start with a language like
C, Java, Python or Ruby.  In any case, you'll want to at least have some
exposure to C, even if you do most of your learning and programming in
Java or some other language.

Once you get some fundamentals down, then shell scripting, perl and even
HTML becomes much easier.

Also, if you can, try to learn by using basic tools.  No special
development environments (IDEs).  Just you, a shell prompt and a text
editor.  At least in the beginning this is important.  It's like learning
how to do basic math  by yourself before relying on a calculator.  If you
start off always using fancy tools, you'll miss some of the basics and it
can make things difficult when the fancy tools break.

So, I suggest a progression of learning something like:

  C --> Java/Python/Ruby --> Perl/Shell Scripting --> HTML + Javascript

Enjoy!

jaaron