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. Another poster mentioned a documentation advantage, but I imagine a lot of that advantage is eroded by being Windows and Microsoft centric. In 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. Your next step should be to something simpler, and with less of a difference to your existing experience. > Perl is probably the easiest next step for someone who has shell > scripting experience. Seconded. I frequently translate shell scripts to Perl when I run into one of the many limitations of shell scripting. Even when I've managed to build something in shell hundreds of lines long before I run into one of these walls, the process is always quick. I say this as someone who has written substantial programs in a dozen different programming languages, and sampled probably a dozen more. Perl is your best next step. Don't be distracted by the Perl 6 noise. Perl 6 has been "coming" for a decade now, and although it's finally in something like a generally useful state now, it's still not as useful as Perl 5 is today. Leave Perl 6 to the early adopters, and don't worry that you aren't using the newest cool-guy version yet. You aren't yet late enough to the party to get plenty of use out of Perl 5 before you have to worry about being forced to move to Perl 6; that won't happen for years yet.