On 20-Jan-07, at 10:31 AM, Philip Tellis wrote:
I don't agree on any of the programming book recommendations. All books on programming languages are filled with the author's own biases and in some cases, lack of proper research. K&R may be good for C, but it's not something you should start with.
I'd recommend that people start learning a language without the aid of a book, but by reading other people's code and using grep and the man page for any function that they don't understand. Start by reading simple programs, and modifying them to suit your own needs.
we have had this discussion on this list a couple of years back. Different people learn in different ways. Some want to be taught, others hate being taught. Some want to read up everything before starting. Others never read anything - they just dive in. Each to his own. The only thing i can say for sure - you will never improve unless you are constantly reading and re-reading the manual. Another great way of learning is to teach someone else ...