On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, Richard Rauch wrote:

> A very relavent question is: What sort of a beginner are you?

[snip]

> When I learned C, I had some background, albeit in (don't tell anybody)
> BASIC.  Some BASIC's, including one of the BASIC's that I knew, have
> reasonably nice structure to them.  I found the transition to C to be
> straightforward, using ``K&R'' (Kernighan & Ritchie's _The C Programming
> Language_).  In addition to being (for me) an excellent tutorial in C, the
> book became an invaluable reference: Short, concise, and even with ANSI C
> still nearly authoritative.

True.  K&R's book is thoroughly wonderful.  But, like Rauch said, quite
unforgiving.  My only experience in programming was a bit of Pascal,
before I read this book.  I managed to pull through a few chapters (boy,
it was dreadful then!), and then finally left it.  I even had the
impression that C was a language that could never be learnt.

But then somebody recommened a book by this person called Gottfried.  I
don't remember the name, but it was a part of the "Schaum series", and
like most books of that series, this too was quite nice.  It had a much
more beginner oriented approach, and that was how I learnt my initial C
programming.

BUT, after I climbed over the initial bit, and got somewhat comfy with C,
I happend to re-visit K&R -- and boy! did I LOVE that book. :-)  It's
still a mystery to me as to why I couldn't digest that book the first
time. :)  Still, you might be a stronger person, and so you could try K&R
first; but just remember that if you find it hard, it's OK -- many more
have felt the same before you. :)

> Other languages that you might find easier to learn, if you are new to
> programming, include Scheme (we have a nice DrScheme package that I like
> and can recommend) or Python (also available as a NetBSD package).  
> Scheme (or LISP in general) is nice in part because it has a much simpler
> syntax, letting you get on with the process of learning how to solve
> problems with a computer (it has general appeal as one gets to know it,
> too).  Python is just a really nice language.  (^&

Oh, Scheme (or LISP) is a wonderful language.  No, not just wonderful, but
beautiful, rather.  The only thing I found didn't like abt Scheme was it's
loads of brackets; else it is *the* best.

Python has been known to be a very good beginners language.  Although, I
wouldn't be able to comment much on that.  It is a very nice language, and
even Guido's (the guy who made Python) tutorial is nice.  Actually,
Python->C would be an easier transition than Scheme->C, as Scheme follows
a totally different style of programming than C/Python.  (And more than
that, once you learn Scheme, you might just find C programming a
bore/below-class. :)

> Good luck, in any case.  And have fun.  (^&

Yup!

Regards.

__
Rakhesh Sasidharan	rakhesh@cse.iitd.ac.in