IMHO, Perl is great as a first language. I have started a few people off in programming by introducing them to Perl. They were all intimidated with the very notion of programming because they thought that there was some arcane / mystical aura around which programmers performed their incantations and magically conjured up even the simplest of tasks.
Once they actually wrote a cheezy 'Hello world' and started to learn how to 'program', they dove right into it. No matter what language we use, there are still rules. If we don't follow these rules, our programs will not do what we expect them to. This has to be enforced when teaching someone how to program.
I learned 'C' as my first programming language. Yes, it made me really appreciate Perl for it's ease. One bonus for someone learning Perl first could be that C's syntax is close enough that the learning curve for C later will be pretty well cut off at the knees.
Mick
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|
