a question

[Mr.popo]

When people say learn a language. Lets say python, does that mean you learn to game program make gui programs network programming and all the othe rstuff. Or does it mean just to learn the language with one of those libaries. Please can you tell me.

cheers.

[LaRoza]

When people say learn a language. Lets say python, does that mean you learn to game program make gui programs network programming and all the othe rstuff. Or does it mean just to learn the language with one of those libaries. Please can you tell me.

cheers.

Sort of.

First, you learn the syntax and how to make variables, decisions, loops, basic data structures and such. Most languages have these built in.

Then, you should explore the standard library. Python has a very large one and it is impossible to know it all. The Python Library Reference is invaluable.

Then, you can explore other libraries and tools kits.

For Python, you would first learn:

* The syntax and rules of the language
* Variables and standard output
* Decision making (if statements)
* Data structures, lists, tuples and dictionaries
* Loops
* Functions
* Objects

Then, you would look at the standard library, which includes modules for networking, xml handling, sorting functions, regular expressions, and much more (http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.5/lib/lib.html)

For GUI's, you would need another library. wxWidgets, GTK, Tkinter and others.

My wiki has good Python links.

[CptPicard]

The first thing you do is learn the language syntax. Once you've got that down, you move to learning the standard (non-standard) APIs that you call to implement most of the functionality in most of your programs.

Strictly, the "language" is just the syntax, but you won't be doing much anything useful without libraries so they go hand in hand...

[pmasiar]

... and how to design data structures in constructs what language provides you, to model objects from your problem area.

[Mr.popo]

thankyou both . The posts have cleared the subject up for me.