learn a programming language

I did my Master’s project in FORTRAN and C. I have a bit of experience with JAVA and C++. I’m open to anything! I want it to be a relatively marketable skill.

I have no idea what would be good to learn. Some ones I’ve heard of:
Java
Python -I’ve tried this and failed at it :)
Ruby
C++
Perl

I’ve started to learn Python, which is cool because it’s a pretty easy language to learn and you can kind of get an understanding of the process involved. It’s funny because it is extremely boring and extremely interesting at the same time. Typing the same variables and strings over and over is pretty monotonous, but when you actually compile it all and run it it’s pretty neat to see it all work (that is of course after spending another hour debugging everything, lol) When I go to school this fall it’s for programming, but it would be nice to have a head start going into it.

I’m using a book called “The Pragmatic Programmers Learn to Program” in the “Facets of Ruby” series. I’ve done very simple programs so far, but doing that has really increased my confidence in becoming more “techie.” I think learning the basics of programming will be a boost to my career as a technical writer.

And don’t cheat! Don’t go looking for another cute scripting language!

If there was a job where you could get paid for fantastic ideas that would be the one for me. However, it’s kind of expected that you are able to follow through on some of your ideas. I studied Media Production at University just before user generated content exploded on the internet rendering everything I learned obsolete. These days, if it aint of the web it ain’t worth the time of day. Knowing this I am aware that I have a large missing chunk in my knowledge. Programming.

I love the internet, serious love them. I love all this social networking nonce-sense, I love Twitter, Youtube, 8tracks and their ilk. I’ve even had ideas about what I’d like to see on the coming down the internet tubes. However I don’t have a blue clue about how any of these wonderful time wasting websites came to be. Hey, I can tweak a Blogger or Tumblr template as well as any eight year old but I want to know more.

A friend who works at the BBC pretty much summed it up by saying that in the next ten years everything will be delivered on the internet – hell, I’ve been saying that since the 90s myself. As a result I am going to make an effort at learning programming. Said friend pointed me in the direction of Ruby as a good place to start.

If I can get my head around that then I will step up into another one. No promises I’ll get that far but it’s time to give this one a go.

I’ve dabbled in Java and Python a little bit (meaning I can write “Hello World”, the easiest thing to possibly do). I would like to learn but I don’t know what I would do with it once I learned.

I think I’d like to make websites. Is that mostly in Java now? Or is it still pretty much rooted in HTML? Anyway, I think making a website(s) would be worthwhile.

A friend of mine that knows some programming has told me to learn Java, so I guess that is the one that I will learn!

Oops – I didn’t mean to add this to my ‘To Do’ list, just wanted to get on the other side of it to be registered as “Willing to Help”. I’ve been in the IT industry for nearly ten years now, and programming is my bread and butter.

Just learned the basics of PHP. Very easy to pick up if you have had any experience in other languages.