[NCLUG] Looking at programming languages...

[Marc Poulin]

For teaching, I recommend Python combined with the
LiveWires course:

http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/home

On Windows I usually install ActiveState Perl and
ActiveState Python.



--- grant at amadensor.com wrote:

> I would like some opinions.   I am going to be doing
> some new  
> development, as well as teaching some people who
> know nothing about  
> programming some basics of programming.
> 
> Here are my issues:
> PERL - Available everywhere, easy to write.  The GUI
> stuff, though is  
> kind of convoluted for n00b's, and it tends to be a
> write only  
> language.   You can write it, but you can't really
> go back and see  
> what you did.
> 
> Ruby - The language is brilliant.   It does
> everything just as you  
> would want and expect.   However, it is a pig at
> runtime, and the  
> runtime tends to have issues like sucking up every
> available bit of  
> RAM and CPU when you least expect it.   I have not
> done any GUI stuff  
> with it.  OO conceptually is a little advanced for
> beginners.
> 
> Gambas - GUI is easy, you can easily connect code to
> GUI artifacts.    
> However, it is not cross platform, and does not
> really seem to have  
> enough people using it to really reach critical
> mass.
> 
> What I want is something I can write a real
> application in, something  
> robust enough for real corporate use.  It needs to
> be cross platform,  
> at least Linux and Windows, since I use Linux, but
> the desktops for  
> deployment may have Windows.  I would also like to
> be able to use it  
> (once I get the hang of it) to teach others the
> basics, but show them  
> that as they improve their skills, they can use this
> for real things,  
> since I have already done so.   I have been a
> programmer since the  
> dawn of time, and have worked in many languages on
> many platforms, so  
> picking up a new one is not really a bad thing.
> 
> Any suggestions you have for languages and where to
> get started on  
> them would be great.  Also, since I will need to do
> GUI applications  
> eventually with it, which toolkits may be nice as
> well as which tools  
> to build the GUI.   I tend to like to use GUI tools
> to build GUI's,  
> but then just a text editor, maybe with syntax
> highlighting, for  
> actual code.   A full blown IDE is not that
> important, although a step  
> debugger is nice.
> 
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