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And now for something completely different

By Orion Blastar (Wed May 09, 2007 at 09:17:26 PM EST) Python, programming, computer languages, computer science (all tags)

I want to turn things around for my life. Try to do better for myself. Maybe if I write a different sort of diary here it might make a difference.

I am trying to learn new languages, I recently got into Python. I was talking with Michael Crawford over it one time and he told me what since I knew Visual BASIC, Pascal, C, etc that Python would be a good language to adapt to. That Google and Yahoo and even NASA are using it.

So I read the online tutorial a bit, and bought a book by the guy who wrote the tutorial. Beginning Python from Novice to Professional and I read the first five chapters already. Quite interesting, complex math libraries, you can reference lists from right to left using negative numbers for the index, and dictionaries appear to be a primitive database structure that is unsorted.

I found that Jython is a version of it that can run under Java, that Iron Python is a version that works with Microsoft Dotnet languages like C#, and Python exists for almost all known platforms. That the older non-supported platforms have Python 1.5.9, and the newer platforms have 2.0 to 2.5 available for them.

There is a lot of read about Python on the Internet and it has kept me busy.

[editor's note, by Orion Blastar]Updated poll

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Poll

What is your favorite computer language?

-	Python	18%
-	Java	4%
-	C++	18%
-	C	27%
-	Visual BASIC.Net	4%
-	C#	4%
-	Classic Visual BASIC	4%
-	Delphi	0%
-	Pascal	4%
-	Perl	22%
-	Ruby (on or off rails)	0%
-	Smalltalk	4%
-	Ada	0%
-	COBOL	4%
-	FORTRAN	4%
-	Applescript	0%
-	Javascript	0%
-	Prolog	0%
-	Forth	9%
-	CASE	0%
-	I don't program	22%
-	WIPO	22%

Votes: 22
Results	\|	Other Polls

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Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional) - Magnus Lie Hetland (0 comments)
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And now for something completely different | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Buy an ad. by joh3n (1.00 / 1) #1 Wed May 09, 2007 at 09:29:39 PM EST

----
I am a crime against humanity
-theantix

: But I am not selling anything by Orion Blastar (4.00 / 1) #4 Wed May 09, 2007 at 10:09:00 PM EST

all I did was cite a source to a book I bought to learn Python from. I don't make any money off that book being sold. Other people can cite books they bought or read on Amazon.com, why can't I?
"I drank what?" - Socrates after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

WIPO: FORTH (nt) by ucblockhead (4.00 / 1) #2 Wed May 09, 2007 at 09:30:43 PM EST

----
_{ウセーバラケダ}

I forget by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed May 09, 2007 at 10:01:09 PM EST

is Forth like Prolog?

"I drank what?" - Socrates after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

: No by ucblockhead (4.00 / 3) #6 Wed May 09, 2007 at 11:13:04 PM EST

It's like an HP calculator.
----
_{ウセーバラケダ}
[ Parent ]

WIPO by alien zero (4.00 / 4) #5 Wed May 09, 2007 at 10:33:37 PM EST

Assembler.

Oops, showing my age

: WIPO by alprazolam (2.00 / 0) #7 Thu May 10, 2007 at 12:40:17 AM EST

assembly is alright but I was thinking VHDL when I voted.

[ Parent ]
: FORTH is already listed. by ObviousTroll (2.00 / 0) #12 Thu May 10, 2007 at 07:28:56 AM EST

No Text-only segment

--
Cur etiam hic es?
[ Parent ]

If you want to learn a new language, by komet (4.00 / 4) #8 Thu May 10, 2007 at 05:10:36 AM EST

do it the fuck properly and go for Spanish, German or Chinese.

Also, taking advice from Michael Crawford is like taking dance lessons from Al Gore.

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.

German isn't a language by alien zero (4.00 / 1) #19 Thu May 10, 2007 at 05:31:10 PM EST

It's a series of guttural noises punctuated by the munching of spiced sausage. Kind of like Klingon, but more aggressive.

[ Parent ]

Al Gore did teach me how to dance by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #22 Fri May 11, 2007 at 11:15:38 AM EST

the only dance that Al Gore can do very well is the robot though.

"I drank what?" - Socrates after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

: You're Peter Crouch?!? by TPD (2.00 / 0) #23 Fri May 11, 2007 at 12:15:24 PM EST

who knew?

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!
[ Parent ]

WIPO by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #9 Thu May 10, 2007 at 06:36:37 AM EST

Garbage collected, turing complete, decent standard libraries, good documentation, just the right amount of syntactic sugar. About half of your options fit the bill. Who cares, otherwise.

Feck, no by Herring (4.00 / 2) #13 Thu May 10, 2007 at 08:48:05 AM EST

When they first started to appear, I was very skeptical of garbage collected languages. Now they are mainstream and I've seen a few systems written using them, I am even more skeptical. All the systems I've seen, at one of other point in development have exhibited what we would've called a memory (or resource) leak - which, of course, can't happen. If you accidentally hang on to a reference to a reference to a reference, or if your system is just too frigging busy to run teh GC, then the memory usage rises horribly (from it's already hyper-inflated starting point).

For years there have been a plethora of Bounds Checker type tools (although it's piss-easy to roll your own) that allow you to eliminate memory problems in C++. And when you free the memory, it's really freed. And when you're done with the object the destructor runs. Predictable.

I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment. - Bill Bailey
[ Parent ]

: Yeah, by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #16 Thu May 10, 2007 at 01:07:08 PM EST

My only experience of non-GC is on plain C, without using many libraries or indeed anything but a plain text editor and compiler, so yeah, when you have a language with the right level of readability, GC isn't necessary, and I was conflating one issue with others.

[ Parent ]

Nope posting diaries won't help a bit by Phage (2.00 / 0) #10 Thu May 10, 2007 at 06:41:04 AM EST

Pick your pallet and....wait, that's not going to work.
<Size 12 to gluteus protocol initiated>

Founder member Golgafrinchan 'B' Ark

WIPO: Brainfuck by BadDoggie (4.00 / 2) #11 Thu May 10, 2007 at 06:44:50 AM EST

reset
    LDX #$00
looper
    LDA wipo,X
    BEQ reset
    STX cache
    JSR $FFD2
    LDX cache
    INX
    JMP looper
wipo
.text "Also, 6502 assembler."
.byte 21,0
cache
.byte 0

woof.

OMG WE'RE FUCKED! -- duxup ?

Damn by anonimouse (2.00 / 0) #14 Thu May 10, 2007 at 12:20:41 PM EST

Until you cheated at the end I was going to show how incredibly clever I was by telling you which CPU the Assembler was for.

Also, any self respecting print character routine would preserve the contents of all the registers it uses, and remove the STX/LDX combo.

Girls come and go but a mortgage is for 25 years -- JtL
[ Parent ]

I remember the days by Herring (2.00 / 0) #18 Thu May 10, 2007 at 05:09:40 PM EST

Linker? We don't need no stinking linker - we have the addresses of the OS functions written down.

Of course, on the BBC Micro - especially in Mode 7, we would just stick the characters into the screen memory.

I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment. - Bill Bailey
[ Parent ]

: Argh... memories by alien zero (2.00 / 0) #20 Thu May 10, 2007 at 05:36:53 PM EST

10 REM (*$^*£" FD£HIO£(*$$Q"_+"£$*O£$"~"£$)$"££$"*(&^)"£$)("£$&R"£(*YR£"(*&£"$
20 REM FSDJKBNIOUEYR£*"$£~@$£~£$*($£"(&£$"~@£$"£$(P&$"££$"(*^$£""£$
30 SYS 8066
(No, this doesn't run)

[ Parent ]

Python and NASA by anonimouse (4.00 / 1) #15 Thu May 10, 2007 at 12:22:48 PM EST

You can betcha that they're not using it anywhere mission critical.

Girls come and go but a mortgage is for 25 years -- JtL

in today's NASA by dr k (4.00 / 1) #17 Thu May 10, 2007 at 02:21:49 PM EST

they hardly do anything mission critical, so that's not much of a problem.

:| :| :| :| :|
[ Parent ]

: Proof that NASA uses Python by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #21 Fri May 11, 2007 at 11:14:04 AM EST

Here is the proof that NASA uses Python.
"I drank what?" - Socrates after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

WIPO: Common Lisp by Alan Crowe (2.00 / 0) #24 Fri May 11, 2007 at 06:36:24 PM EST

Yes, really. I'm even been caught talking about my love of a dead, old language in public.

And now for something completely different | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback