Much of this choice would seem to be based upon what you want to accomplish. My 3 top choices would be PERL which is well supported by CPAN, Python, and C using the gnu compiler collection (gcc). It seems that everyone has a favorite and each has it's merits. Why one language would be chosen over another is a topic probably best answered by others on the listso I'll open that up. Why choose one language over another to code a given task? What makes a language better for one task and not so good for another?
Eric AF6EP
On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 2:55 PM, Alan P. Biddle APBIDDLE@united.net wrote:
We have a lot of folks here who do programming at a variety of levels. After a 20+ year hiatus, I am looking to get back into doing a bit of programming. The intent is not to get into it at a professional level, but to be able to rip off quick and dirty small programs. Data acquisition, taking the output of a program and merge and reformat it for specific purposes, which of course I can do in some cases with Excel, are a couple of things which come to mind. It will need the ability to interact with external hardware. However, the primary purpose is as a brain stretcher for someone who once thought F*RTR*N was a real language.
I am tempted to say that I am looking for the current generation BASIC, but I am want something a bit beyond that, though of course the ability to print "Hello World" with less than 10 lines of code is a plus. ;) And it needs to be something I can get into using a free or low cost compiler. I am not much interested in spending a few hundred dollars.
People have recommended Python, older versions of Delphi, early version of C, etc, as what I should do. Well, maybe. So if anyone has a good recommendation, please contact me OFF LIST. And did I say, it needs to be cheap?!
Alan WA4SCA
What's the opposite of Diversity? University!
Catherine McMillan
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