On Mon, 13 Dec 2010, A T Williams wrote: > *But* I am the primary developer of a large Python application > <http://www.ohloh.net/p/coils> [113K lines and growing] and it *is( an interesting trendlines there [soft economy, or loss of interest in FOSS oritented languages, I wonder] -- I tinkered with the languages displayed to display (and pairs that track together) C++ and Java - potentially strongly typed Python and PHP - weakly typed perl and Ruby - scripting without too much pain of entry As the thread was for a newbie recommendation, I'd really consider Ruby before any of the others, as it has a fast learning curve and support a path that leads to better habits of algorithmic design and correctness than perl, PHP, or Python Done properly, C++ and Java are just too hard unless one is willing to invest much time to properly learning the language tools. ... and C++ has less 'weeds' and is more free in that pairing. The new Stroustrup intro is a gem which many have overlooked - 'Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++' and it is well worth considering if one intends to learn to design and code more than casually http://gallery.herrold.com/ohloh-languages.png -- Russ herrold
