Catonic wrote:
I have decided to buy some books on Java, Ruby, and Python. Any recommendations for the above?

What programming languages do you already know and how well do you know them?

Decius wrote:

Catonic wrote:
I have decided to buy some books on Java, Ruby, and Python. Any recommendations for the above?

What programming languages do you already know and how well do you know them?

C and not very. I have a cursory understanding of Perl.

Catonic wrote:

Decius wrote:

Catonic wrote:
I have decided to buy some books on Java, Ruby, and Python. Any recommendations for the above?

What programming languages do you already know and how well do you know them?

C and not very. I have a cursory understanding of Perl.

My recommendation is that you pick ONE language and learn it REALLY well instead of trying to learn 5. Once you've really got one, the others are easy to learn because you'll already understand how things are supposed to work.

C is absolutely best because it is the lowest level language and so you learn the most about how the machine works from learning it.

As for the three you list here, the object oriented techniques involved with those languages are something that you may need to do some reading to get, but the languages themselves will come extremely easily once you have C.

Start writing small C programs that teach you fundamentals. Actually write them and get them running. Reading and "getting it" are not the same.

Get this book.

Decius wrote:

My recommendation is that you pick ONE language and learn it REALLY well instead of trying to learn 5. Once you've really got one, the others are easy to learn because you'll already understand how things are supposed to work.

C is absolutely best because it is the lowest level language and so you learn the most about how the machine works from learning it.

As for the three you list here, the object oriented techniques involved with those languages are something that you may need to do some reading to get, but the languages themselves will come extremely easily once you have C.

Start writing small C programs that teach you fundamentals. Actually write them and get them running. Reading and "getting it" are not the same.

Get this book.

I have a copy of K&R C, but looking for standard functions without rewriting the world was kinda of the object I guess. OO is something that I am finding is used more and learning those concepts wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't really trust the MS book I have on C. :)

I do have a copy of a C/C++ text from 98 when I started college, but I don't have it in front of me at the moment.

Catonic wrote:
I have a copy of K&R C, but looking for standard functions without rewriting the world was kinda of the object I guess. OO is something that I am finding is used more and learning those concepts wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't really trust the MS book I have on C. :)

If you really want to learn from an OO perspective, I recommend Java. Ignore Ruby and Python and learn Java really, really well. Use the O'Reilly books. They are quite good, and once you're done, working with Ruby or Python will be easy as pie. But you won't learn as much about how the computer works.

A lot of CS programs start you with Java. Its a high level language thats great for high level programming... like application software or web services. If you want to do low level stuff, like security stuff or drivers or real networking code, its limiting, and I wouldn't start with it. I'd start with C.