In article <bn9ush$j0e$3@hood.uits.indiana.edu>,
Gregory L. Hansen <glhansen@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote:
>
>When I read about Unix tools there seems to be a lot of overlap between
>them, like
>
> shells
> awk
> sed
> Perl
> Python
> C
> tcl/tk
> Java
> Lisp
>
>What's a beginner to do that can only learn one at a time? If I learn
>Perl, is there any reason at all to look at awk and sed? What does Python
>do that Perl doesn't? I like the thought of the C/tcl/tk combination,
>e.g. a simple way to put a graphical interface on my C apps, or so the
>legends go, but has Java made that obsolete? What does anyone use Lisp
>for?
>
>Please share some opinions.

Learn a shell first, choose the one that you can get someone to
answer your questions one on one in person. Best is some Bourne
like shell which will be good for scripting and interactive use.

Next learn your basic unix commands as are found in "Unix in a
Nutshell." This includes awk and sed.

Then decide if you want to learn C, then Perl and the other stuff.

Perl is too cryptic to learn initially, and awk and sed are much
more straughtforward, as is C (C++ is harder to master).

So much for some initial thoughts.


Chuck Demas

--
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