This will be a long post, and a lot of you will think that Im a blithering idiot... Im also buzzed, so this will probably ramble (no code even...)


I haven't programmed since before the internet was born. When I did program, it was on a Commodor =64; back in the days of Phreaking and Hacking when you actually had to blue box to get anywhere. Used to hack random Unix's... nothing that wouldv'e gotten me any real time back in the day. I used to write my ML apps by writing Basic programs to 'POKE X, Y' because I didnt have a compiler (thats why I like OO script languages; they're low tech and seem relatively eficient).


Im learning to program again because I have time again. At the moment, Im working within my means, and building...


Just taught m'self HTML, DHTML, and XHTML (like they're actually different), as well as style sheets and such; and am now working on JavaScript... I have to say I hate all of that crap. You can't do anything worth doing with any of them. X/D/HTML is moronic... Who writes any language where you can't define a formula? You do ANYTHING twice, you build a formula; even Word has macro's. JavaScript is just a pain in the *ss... to do anything actually relevant, you have to write a phone book... (but you can make it blink in one line =)...


To make matters worse, in all of these you have to trash your code to bow to every browser's quirks. I *thought* the internet was supposed to solve that type of garbage; but I guess that since he wrote =Commodor 64 Basic V2.0= in the early eighties, Bill Gates still hasn't learned to play nice with the other children.


What I want is a language that can do anything I want it to do; from writing applications, games, data proscessing, web pages, ANYTHING. I want it to be capable of running on server side, or client side; and be pretty much universally acceptable. I don't care if coding it by hand is a nightmare... I actually like that part.


I haven't found any books on Perl... at least not ones that I don't have to have shipped (I like to thumb thru first); but from what I've seen, Perl is the language I need.


1) Is Perl the language I should pursue? Is there a language like I describe? Anything close? From what I've seen, my three best choices are, in order of preference, Perl, C++, and Java. If Perl aint it, what about the other two? I would prefer Perl because I can code on the fly without a compiler.


2) What books do I want? Not the 'Perl for Dummies' type, but real code, syntax, and tricks. This place is too advanced still... I don't know how to dimension an array in this language yet. I need vocabulary; I need a straight user's manual.


I know this isn't the type of post you guys look for; but any help would be greatly appreciated.


Me


edited: Sun Mar 9 15:09:21 2003 by jeffa - title change (was: Sorry all.)

In reply to Should I learn Perl? by Anonymous Monk

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