"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I am not sure your intention but I think there isn't a one language > fits all situation here.
Very true. > C/C++ - for linux kernel hacking etc., many library out there still use > it > python - generic stuff > SQL - nothing beats it for many business apps > haskell - a language to train my brain > javascript - Web front end > > other than haskell and SQL, the others are more or less the same to me > so getting familiar with them is not too difficult. There are actually lots of good "train your brain" type languages. Members of the LISP family, for instance, to learn what you can do with lists, and also for how cool a real macro facility can be. I happen to like Scheme, but that's just me. APL, for learning you can do with arrays. SNOBOL for old-school string processing and pattern matching. Icon for what you can do with failure. Eiffel for what you can do with objects and DbC. CLU for duck typing with declerations. Prolog for what you can do without writing commands. Oz includes a nice combination of a lot of these things. The best ones have a book associated with them that teaches general programming practices using said language as an example - and hopefully does a good job of it. I've only got four of those: Scheme: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman and Sussman. Commonly called SICP. Available online at <URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html >. Oz: Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming, by Van Roy and Haridi. Sometimes shortened to "The Oz book." Read more about it at <URL: http://www2.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/book.html >. Eiffel: Object Oriented Software Construction, by Bertrand Meyer. Referred to as OOSC. Read more about it at <URL: http://archive.eiffel.com/doc/oosc/ >. LISP: On LISP, by Paul Graham. Download it at <URL: http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html >. The first three are books about programming that happen to use a specific language that supports the techniques the authors want to discuss. On LISP on the other hand is more about what's unique about LISP programming, at least when compared to more conventional languages. A lot of what's good about LISP is also good about Python, so a lot of what he has to say carries over into Python. It's also the only place to get a thorough look at LISP macro programming, which knowledge does *not* carry over into Python - but you'll understand why people ask for macros in Python :-). If you know of some book/language pair that you think everyone would benefit from reading, I'd be interested in hearing about them. <mike -- Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
