In article <bna4r2$e99$1@pcls3.std.com>,
Charles Demas <demas@TheWorld.com> wrote:
>In article <bn9ush$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.

I actually have some familiarity with shells, less now than I did through
disuse of most features besides starting up programs and sometimes piping
them around. And I know C and C++, but I haven't used them much in a Unix
context. And I have a fat Unix book that describes some of that stuff,
like sed and awk but not Perl, that I plan to go through when I get Linux
in my home. But Perl has been described as doing more than sed and awk
together, removing the need to pipe things around between the two and the
shell, so I wondered whether I even need to care about them. One thing I
have in mind is a fairly elaborate e-mail filter that can keep tallies,
filter on attachments, send notifications of spam deletions, recognize
spoofed words like pe.n!s, which are things that slocal on my Sun shell
account can't do, so off-hand Perl seemed like the one to use, based
strictly on what I've read about it but no knowledge of it.

At least one person likes Python for scientific programming, but I don't
know if that does things that Perl doesn't, or makes the job especially
easier than C or Fortran would.

--
"Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the
truth... But let us beware of publishing our dreams before they have been
put to the proof by the waking understanding." -- Friedrich August Kekulé