in reply to Learning OOP

Monks,
I want to thank you for your input. It has been very enlightening.
I enjoyed the comments of those who learned oo-programming while using Perl.
My reason for gaining an understanding of oop is one of many steps in becoming a better ‘programmer’, my goal is to write code I can be proud of when it works and when viewed by programmers with more experience than myself. (to quote a former manager, "chicks dig sexy code") I’m an old dude (42) who was a musician for 20 years who had no desire for a college degree, and now doesn’t have the time.

(Married > 3 Kids > Self-taught web designer hanging with Perl and Java Programmers > Learns Perl (entry)> Takes a detour for a 2 year PHP contract > Now wants to be able to get farther away from the “Just another designer who does a little scripting, but really doesn’t know what he’s doing” group – I hate that ;-).

I’d love to take a few years and do anything it takes to get a CS degree, but that just not going to happen. My goal is to make money doing what I like, building stuff with my computer. I’m fascinated with programming; at Merlin’s reference to SmallTalk I went and checked it out. My heart says, “cool”, but my brain says, “Yea, but you don’t have the time to get to the “super-geek” level.” (perhaps as a hobby)

So after reading your posts and much meditation, I think Perl is perfect for me, I can use it for learning more advanced programming, it’s time well spent, since I can use the knowledge right away in my work.
Thanks, now I can quit thinking and get to work!

- DJS

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Re: Re: Learning OOP
by BarneyFife (Acolyte) on Jun 23, 2003 at 13:31 UTC
    Commenting on his own post:

    Reading this in the context fo the thread...
    Sorry if this is too "up close and personal".
    Age old question, "Too much coffee, or not enough?"

    thanks,
    -DJS

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Re: Re: Learning OOP
by rje (Deacon) on Jun 23, 2003 at 16:15 UTC
    That's a pretty good distillation of all those replies. But I still want to pipe up.

    I agree about the Smalltalk reference; it is an *excellent* way to learn OO, but perhaps not 'practical' for some value of practical.

    If you are looking for marketability, I concur with one reply that mentioned Java. Java will teach you a basic OO-way of thinking, and much of the syntax will be familiar to a Perler. Most non-web jobs don't use the word 'Perl' in their descriptions. There's always C#... (I can't believe I said that).

    Also, we know that learning another language teaches your brain to think about programming in new ways; it's not an addendum, it's a synergy.

    Finally, I agree with nearly all the replies that say that Perl is not a wonderful way to learn OO. However, it will probably teach you more about the guts of an OO system than Java would, and in fact might not straitjacket the learning process -- that is, Perl gives you more rope. But again, that thread might circle back to the Smalltalk issue... how much does the average Perler need to know in order to make a living?
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