[sf-lug] Tutor me in Programming?

[Justin Ryan]

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 7:59 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
>
> (brazenly: ) back away and ask
> * what kind of data is your program handling,
> is it uniform (a bunch of numbers or a bunch
> of names), does it have a beginning and an
> end (user input from a keyboard has a beginning
> but no predictable end), are there relations
> between data elements (a name and a phone
> number, a number and its square).
> * what result is wanted? sort the data,
> compress it, eliminate as much as possible,
> record (log) it in a certain fashion....
> * what tools are available to you to use?
> various programming languages, various
> libraries or modules?
>
> how to think like a programmer:
> http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=43
>
> how to think like a computer scientist:
> http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/
>

A nice Java and C++ book also.  I was going to post this link:

  http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+think+like+a+computer+scientist&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

But then I saw yours, so I did anyway. :-P

> (those who know me, forgive me: ) consider
> learning python
> * it's human readable to the max
> * colleges are switching to python from C as
> their intro to programming language
> * one of the backbone principles is not to
> be "clever"
> * python literature and modules are well-
> documented and with respect to expressing an
> elegant problem solution
> * python programmers, i.e. the people to whom
> you'd be turning to help, have a reputation,
> as a group, to be better than average
> programmers in the very sense you mean.
>

We like to say that we know ten programming languages on average, I'm
not sure if we'll collectively admit to being as cocky as you've
pinned us, but you can't scoff at a group whom debate whether the most
productive programmer produces ten lines of code a day, or negative
ten. ;)

PyPy++, people at Sun, such as the author of Duby, are following the
Python community's discarded mavericks. :)

Peace,

J

-- 
Justin Alan Ryan
Independent Interaction Architect
http://www.bitmonk.net/
* : +1-415-226-1199 x2600

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