[SOLVED] What Programming Language Would be the Most Useful to Learn for Ubuntu?

[acelin]

What Programming Language Would be the Most Useful to Learn for Ubuntu?

I especially want to be able to customize interfaces to be more advanced, and to fix Ubuntu problems in general...

[cardinals_fan]

A tough question that will be moved to recurring discussions in a couple minutes. I can't say what language would be most useful for Ubuntu, but a little Perl can be very useful for scripting.

[acelin]

A tough question that will be moved to recurring discussions in a couple minutes. I can't say what language would be most useful for Ubuntu, but a little Perl can be very useful for scripting.

Negative comment!

Would you please explain more about Perl?

[GCoffee]

Same here,

I have been looking for what feel's like centuries now, for a good decent easy-to-learn langauge that isn't gambas - a task I still haven't completed.

I was a big user of autoit in the days of XP, but they don't do it for linux :(

Any help would be appreciated..

GCoffee.

[Phenax]

Well, most utilities are either programmed in Python or C on Ubuntu.

I'd recommend Python as it is usually easier for newbies to grasp.

[acelin]

I heard python would be good for interface design, especially in Gtk... correct me if I am wrong!

[LaRoza]

For Ubuntu, Python + C.

For individual apps, any language you want. See my site and wiki.

[acelin]

Thanks! Would C or Python be better for Gtk/interface engine design?

[cardinals_fan]

Negative comment!

Would you please explain more about Perl?
Perl is, officially, the Practical Extract and Report Language. Unofficially, it's the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. Regardless of which slogan you prefer, Perl is superb at processing text. It is frequently used in scripts to download and parse information off the web. Many scripts that people on these forums use in their conkys (for Gmail checking, weather, etc.) use Perl. Read the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl).

I'm currently learning Ruby and it is much easier and more fun than Perl. It is not as widely used yet, but the Ruby on Rails web development framework is gaining a lot of traction. Ruby is growing fast. Ruby tries to follow the Principle of Least Surprise, so that users who have become experienced with the language are rarely surprised. Here's a quote from Ruby's creator: Everyone has an individual background. Someone may come from Python, someone else may come from Perl, and they may be surprised by different aspects of the language. Then they come up to me and say, 'I was surprised by this feature of the language, so Ruby violates the principle of least surprise.' Wait. Wait. The principle of least surprise is not for you only. The principle of least surprise means principle of least my surprise. And it means the principle of least surprise after you learn Ruby very well. For example, I was a C++ programmer before I started designing Ruby. I programmed in C++ exclusively for two or three years. And after two years of C++ programming, it still surprises me.
Ruby is very object oriented. Here's its Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(programming_language)).

BTW, what's with the 'negative comment' stuff? I only said that this will be moved to recurring discussions because this topic has been discussed many times before.

EDIT: C (++) is probably the most universal language to learn. I just haven't spent much time with it yet.

[LaRoza]

Thanks! Would C or Python be better for Gtk/interface engine design?

C and Python can use libglade. Writing GUI's in a statically typed language is very TDS, so Python would be easier to use to make GUI's.

Perl is, officially, the Practical Extract and Report Language. Unofficially, it's the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.


Officially, it doesn't stand for anything.

[cardinals_fan]

Officially, it doesn't stand for anything.
Very true. Actually, considering Larry Wall's sense of humor, an official title would probably be more like the latter.

[acelin]

Haha I was joking cardinal dude...
Thanks everyone! I will mark this is as solved.

[Keith Hedger]

C + devhelp (the documentation reader) + bash + glade3 + gedit
Not all programming languages but its what i use to create gui and cli progs (I personally dont like python though i did write a plugin for gedit with it)

[cardinals_fan]

Haha I was joking cardinal dude...
Thanks everyone! I will mark this is as solved.
Just checking ;)

[Eisenwinter]

Well, I'll add something.

I'm currently learning Perl, and I love this language very much. I have 2 close friends from IRC to help me with any problems I may encounter.

I prefer to simply code, and solve things by myself, rather than having the Perldocs by my side.
When I have a problem and my "mentors" aren't on, I google it.

Perl is not my first language though. I come from mIRC, though that is hardly a programming language, it's far more purpose-specific.

So, I use Irssi as my IRC client, it has a Perl plugin, allowing me to make IRC related things until I get a good enough grasp of Perl to finally move out of that environment, into the more general purpose programming.

[bruce89]

Vala.

[|{urse]

I like perl, it's an awesome language, but it is however an interpreted language and isn't as "fast as you can get". Learn C then learn C++ + glade. Once you understand C languages like ruby, python, and perl make so much more sense and you will be able to do more with them. Now if youre a superfreak and want to write your own drivers and such, check out HLA (high level assembly)

http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/Page_Linux/index.html

It's like C on crack with a stickshift.

[shadylookin]

I would say python. It's pretty easy to learn and you can use pyGTK for GUIs