RE: Jumpstart a programming ability

Subject: RE: Jumpstart a programming ability
From: "Michael Collier" <mcollier -at- arlut -dot- utexas -dot- edu>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 18:08:08 -0500

I agree with the suggestions endorsing Perl, with a couple of caveats - -
while it's great for text processing (for which it was designed), a lot of
things can be done with simpler Unix programming tools - sed and awk. So
you might want to investigate those (and shell programming in general)
first. A book or two should get you going, no expensive classes needed.

Perl could be seen as a "dead end," however, since it is a language unto
itself. With shell programming, you get your feet wet with a little C, then
you have the foundation for C++. And C++, as I understand it, gives you a
good background for learning Java. Perl as far as I know doesn't provide as
much of a learning path to other languages.

You also might want to investigate the world of web programming, of which
Perl is definitely a part - in addition, the various web server languages
are probably worth learning - ASP, PHP, JSP, and XML as others have
mentioned. I look for classes like "Java for the Web," as opposed to a full
blown Java course. You don't need all the details, unless you are really
doing a career switch.

Software applications are increasingly becoming web-enabled, so development
environments are using a lot of those technologies. For a technical writer,
it's probably more of a natural move to begin by exploring web-related
programming technologies first.

................................................................
Michael Collier, Technical Writer Office: N636
Information Systems Laboratory http://isl.arlut.utexas.edu/
Applied Research Laboratories: The University of Texas at Austin
Voice: 512-835-3408 e-mail: mcollier -at- arlut -dot- utexas -dot- edu
................................................................


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