Re: [TCLUG:11227] learning perl/python

["Eric M. Hopper" <hopper@omnifarious.mn.org>]

On Fri, Dec 17, 1999 at 10:15:48AM -0600, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> 
> I'm self-taught across the board (and I don't just mean scripting -
> "real" languages like C, too).  I buy a good book, read it, use it,
> fiddle with the language.
> 
> I have been sent to a week of classes in MS-SQL Server.  Forgot it all
> in record time since a) I didn't have to work for the information and
> b) (probably more significant) it's not information that I was using
> at the time (or ever).

	More thought on this topic...  I'm also largely self-taught in
the computer languages I know.  I found my CS courses to be interesting
and helpful, but the reason for this is not the 'facts' and technologies
they talked about.  The new ideas presented, or the labelling of ideas
I'd already had and placing them in context where what was useful to
me.  It gave me a common language to talk to others about what I did,
and gave me new connections between ideas.

	Learning a new computer language, or even your first one, is an
exploratory process.  Computers are very patient teachers, always
pointing out with flawless accuracy where your thinking is wrong, or
subtle mistakes in grammar or syntax.  Of course, some compilers do a
better job of telling you what your problem is than others...  :-)

Have fun (if at all possible),
-- 
Its name is Public Opinion.  It is held in reverence. It settles everything.
Some think it is the voice of God.  Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet
broke a chain or freed a human soul.     ---Mark Twain
-- Eric Hopper (hopper@omnifarious.mn.org  http://omnifarious.mn.org/~hopper) --

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