ZikO wrote: > I am a C++ programmer and I am thinking of learning something else > because I know second language might be very helpful somehow. I have > heard a few positive things about Python but I have never writen any > single line in python so I do not know this language at all. > > Do you think python would be good complementary language for C++? Do > you think it's worth learning it or let's say try Java? and how > difficult it would be for me if I know C++ pretty well I would say?
Python is an excellent first, second or 20th programming language. It's a lot easier to interface Python with C++ than it is to interface Java with C++ (but both are possible). I tend to use multiple languages daily (at any time usually 4-5 in regular use) and I've "forgotten" at least 20 languages (i.e. they're no longer in regular use - but I could probably pick them up again quickly). The more programming languages you learn, the easier it is to learn new ones. The first thing to do when learning a new language is to drop any habits you learned with the language you're currently using. If you find yourself asking "How do I implement <idiom> in Python?", stop and instead ask "What problem am I trying to solve?". Quite often idioms from other languages result in much more verbose and much slower code. The same thing happens going the other way - so often in Java I get frustrated because there's so much more boilerplate to implement what are simple idioms in Python. Unfortunately in Java, usually there isn't a simpler alternative available ... Eventually you should learn both Java and Python, if only to be exposed to different approaches to doing things. Tim Delaney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
