[Gllug] question about python/perl

[Simon Wilcox]

On 24/02/2011 10:55, James Hawtin wrote:
> Personally, I decided to learn Ruby. [...] However it is probably
> your least commerical choice unless you want to learn "Ruby on
> Rails".

I dunno. If you wanted to work on large scale systems admin using Puppet 
(http://www.puppetlabs.com/) then it could be quite useful.

As the OP is a web designer, I'd recommend Javascript (specifically the 
jQuery library) as building interactivity in the front-end is 
increasingly important.

In the back-end I'd recommend learning the best frameworks that are 
available in your language of choice. That's probably Catalyst (Perl), 
Rails (Ruby) or CakePHP (PHP) but there are others.

It's really easy to write bad code in all languages, using a framework 
for web development will help avoid a lot of the really insecure practices.

When you reach beyond web development to systems administration then PHP 
becomes less useful. Bash & Perl are ubiquitous, python & ruby following 
up behind.

I would NOT recommend learning Java unless you want to work on desktop 
apps or as a developer in a corporate style environment. Yes, I know 
that it's used widely but less so for web development. It really has 
little to offer a web developer or a systems administrator given the 
alternatives.

And just to reiterate what others have said, much like learning a spoken 
language, immersion is the key to solid learning. Find a project that 
you want to work on and perhaps try it out in a couple of languages to 
see how they compare.

Simon.
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