Hi again, I have another real newbie question:

As I am completely new to Linux/Unix but really would like to learn it, my question is where to start with programming, which language do you recommend to start with, for scripts etc.

Thank you

Thomas

You might want to look into C, for scripting and definitely Perl. There are so many that you can use. What are you looking into when using Linux? Are you looking more for program creation or web design, that should give you the best idea on what languages you should focus on.

The first focus is on writing some small scripts and/or programs to automate stuff on the system, can you do this with perl?

I'm sure you can do everything with C, but I would like some kind of "quick and dirty" script language do get some fast success, and after that go into detail, like e.g. Visual Basic in Windows, you know, buy a book, read it in two days and write you're software... (Sorry for this, but it's only to start with... )

you should be able to use perl to write some scripts for some automated tasks or whatever....

perl's a good starter script language, but i would still second tricky's recommendation that you try out c. perl's definitely a good language to have under your belt, tho.

Sounds like you've just describe Perl to me Mind you its not really dirty - just quick...

Jamie...

If you want to automate stuff, then you would use BASH (the shell that interprets all your commands). Use the man page on BASH, and there are a couple of HOWTOs that take it further.

If you want to process text (e.g. analysing log files, or re formatting output to printers, or converting text files, or...) then definitely use Perl.

The key is to be sure that you know what you want to do. Then choose the language to suit the task.

Joe

Perl is the King of One-liner's; quick; efficient.
But you can't write REAL, efficient programs with it.

I recommend Python if you are a COMPLETE newbie to programming. It is a non-one-liner language; a more constructive one.

http://www.python.org

GO WITH PYTHON!!!!! It's a very nice language. From what I can see, it's one of the best. This is because of several reasons:

Python is VERY powerful
Python is EASY!
Python is FREE (but so is PERL)

if you just want to do simple little projects, or put some CGI scripts on your webpage, PERL is fine, but if you want to write an office suit, or something like that, then go with Python. As Double letter has done, here is the webpage (again) for python:

<a href=http://www.python.org>Python.org</a>

Oh, and if you haven't already, learn HTML. It's good to be able to casually write it, too. It's also extremely easy!