[Icon-tech] Hello

[Terrell Jones]

John,
A friend recommended to me the book Diving into Python. He said it was a good book for beginning 
programmers.
What do you think of that one?
Terrell
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:45:01 -0400, John Esak wrote:


>I am a long time programmer. 35 years  plus now.  I reviewed Python for a
>magazine back when it first started appearing... but I never worked in it.
>When I got my Icon, I picked up the book Learning Python which is available
>on bookshare.org and it came very easily to me.  I do not think this would
>be true if you are not a programmer with a good bit of background in at
>least shell scripting, if not C.   BASIC is an excellent starting point for
>anything though.  I learned Dartmouth BASIC back in about 1973 I think...
>and it was just great  compared to the lower level machine language stuff
>that was the only other optins back then.  After a short while C made its
>way out through the Unix heads at Bell labs and Berkely and elsewhere, and
>that is almost a shame... because while it is an infinitely more powerful
>language and the basis for just about everything we use today... it is not
>nearly as good as BASIC was for teaching someone the tenets of programming.
>So, while Python is really a stupendous language and one I am starting to
>like writing in more than anything else, it will be hard for you to make
>some of the leaps it will ask of you.  However, if you start at the
>beginning of this book, and have an environment where you can try each thing
>as it is brought up, there is no reason why you can't learn it.  I just want
>to warn you not to get discouraged.   Some of the concepts are  difficult to
>grasp.  For example, I program in C and used to do it all day long.  Still,
>the object oriented parts of Pyton and C++ often illude me for days and
>weeks.  I'm forever needing to go through aha moments when I finally
>understand what it is that is being taught.  You can read it 15 times and
>not get it, then, the 16th time some bell rings somewhere and you understand
>what is going on.  Even so, it is not a simple matter of just beginning to
>write code now that you understand some part of it.  There is a learning
>curve to all of it, and I don't think there is anyone who can bypass that
>curve.  It simply takes time, and that's all there is to it.  I liken it to
>a musician perhaps who can play the guitar really well and has for 40 years.
>He has talent and decides to take up the violin .  No matter how much talent
>he has and how much desire and how much understanding he has of the
>concepts, he still needs to put in the actual long bit of time trying and
>re-trying and learning the new instrument.  the worse part of this situation
>is that he does not have the same youthful desire to push on that he did
>when he was 20... so it might take him another 40 years to also be able to
>play the violin.   Ha,  <smile> and here I'm telling you not to get
>discouraged.  Sorry.  Anyway, get the book "Learning Pyton" from bookshare.
>It is your best beginning and introduction I think.
>
>John Esak
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws
>>[mailto:icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws] On Behalf Of David Poehlman
>>Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:06 AM
>>To: Terrell Jones; Icon technical discussions.
>>Subject: Re: [Icon-tech] Hello
>>
>>Hi t, long time no see.
>>
>>On Aug 11, 2009, at 4:54 AM, Terrell Jones wrote:
>>
>>Hello,
>>My name is Terrell Jones. I'm interested in developing applications
>>for the Braille +. I have
>>dabbled in the BASIC Programming language. However, I have never
>>worked with python, so
>>programming is new to me. If anyone could point me to some good
>>resources, that would be great.
>>Thanks for your help,
>>Terrell
>>
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>
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