Path: csiph.com!aioe.org!.POSTED.pt/i611GZDo9wKpqGJyFbQ.user.gioia.aioe.org!not-for-mail From: Boris Dorestand Newsgroups: comp.programming Subject: Re: are you interested in number theory AND programming Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 11:22:02 -0300 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 65 Message-ID: <86k0zslhbp.fsf@example.com> References: <2122d884-f04b-42f8-b95a-a257b61fef86o@googlegroups.com> <87k10boswq.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <61c49983-9b6b-4f91-adf8-86aa33ada235o@googlegroups.com> <8b0924a3-e189-400c-825b-407a711f9947o@googlegroups.com> <11604552-75ea-4a4b-86d2-e5747a9c6a0fo@googlegroups.com> <6d19d218-3a96-40da-aaf9-155882ed09b5o@googlegroups.com> <7d267127-1d8e-487f-a26f-7e21a6e2e6a4o@googlegroups.com> <599aa968-958c-4f03-868a-9ffd066aba4co@googlegroups.com> <8a04920a-8a6a-4b01-8749-20020b9d6fa0o@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: pt/i611GZDo9wKpqGJyFbQ.user.gioia.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.9.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:w7zwBM24DhpLOoIEDNJFGFBQ9/M= Xref: csiph.com comp.programming:11006 David Brown writes: > On 26/06/2020 12:56, James Dow Allen wrote: >> On Friday, June 26, 2020 at 4:10:17 PM UTC+7, David Brown wrote: >>> On 26/06/2020 10:25, syed owais wrote: >>>> i have changed course in the pursuit of programming skills--i will >>>> first learn c and the python. >>>> >>> >>> Trust this from someone who works primarily with C and Python for a >>> living - that is a truly stupid idea. It is perhaps not quite as bad as >>> picking FORTRAN, but it is /bad/. >> >> Why? I think there's a case for first learning a language >> "close to the hardware." Is there some reason that C is a bad first >> language? > > Yes, many reasons. > > I can agree that learning a language "close to the hardware" is a good > idea if you want to understand about computer hardware. The OP here > wants a tool to help automate his mathematics work - he does not (or > should not) care anything about the hardware. [...] > It might be that the best choice for him is Haskell or Lisp, rather than > Python, or that he has other requirements that haven't been discussed. > And it is entirely plausible that the best choice in the end will not be > the same as the /first/ choice - you can pick a different balance when > learning about programming, and later once you have a better > understanding and want something more advanced. But I am very confident > that neither C nor FORTRAN are appropriate choices. Your entire post makes a lot of sense. I'd like to contribute with an addition here that might sound very controversial at the end, but here it goes. I think the OP should also consider not just the language but the book too. Because of the availability of ``the book'', I think a Lisp turns out to the best thing for the OP. Here's why. The book How to Design Programs http://htdp.org is AFAIK the unique book in the entire world that seems to actually teach programming without the usual strategy of presenting various sample problems and solving them the programming language of choice. It seems HtDP is the only book that found a way to talk about programming in a more general sense of the word. Of course they solve lots of sample simple problems, but only to illustrate the more general strategy. The books sends you towards functional programming --- which I guess will suit the OP's mathematics work --- and Lisp seems to be the language with least syntax, which seems like a good educational start. But the choice for Lisp is due to HtDP. This book is *the educational first book* on programming. Even experienced programmers should read it, I think: if not for anything else, then at least so one would get close to an educational approach one hasn't closely seen yet. I have no association with the authors. I speak for myself, of course.