[CentOS] OT: programming language for morons (newbie friendly language in Open Source world)

Mon Dec 13 22:02:10 UTC 2010
Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam at whitemice.org>

On Mon, 2010-12-13 at 14:49 -0700, Warren Young wrote: 
> On 12/13/2010 9:37 AM, Les Mikesell wrote:
> > On 12/13/2010 10:14 AM, Sven Aluoor wrote:
> >> A friend said that C-Sharp (Mono) is very simple. Is this true?
> I doubt you'll find it any less complex than Java.  The two are very 
> similar, conceptually.  C# exists more for political and business 
> reasons than technical ones; it fills the same space Java could fill, in 
> a platform-agnostic world.

False.  C# has significant technical advantages over Java - good
Generics and LINQ just being two.

Another advantage over Java is the namespaces were not created by a
addled drug addict.  Seriously "Xalan", "Xerces", and "Struts"? (just to
name three).  Yea, that is clear.  I'll take C# "System.Xml" and
"System.ComponentModel" everyday.

> Another poster mentioned a documentation advantage, but I imagine a lot 
> of that advantage is eroded by being Windows and Microsoft centric. 

No, not really. The portability is extremely good.  Good code is strict code.
 
> any case, I don't think the documentation advantage is enough to solve 
> the core problem you likely had with Java, which C# shares, that being 
> its relative verbosity and strictness.

Strictness is a *feature*.  Especially for someone who wants to
initially learn programming.

> > Perl is probably the easiest next step for someone who has shell
> > scripting experience.
> Seconded.

-1 Perl is a withering dinosaur.

> Don't be distracted by the Perl 6 noise.  Perl 6 has been "coming" for a 
> decade now, 

+1

I expect by the time P6 arrives very few people will care;  Perl has
been fading for a long time.