Hi, :)

I know that there are books out there and internet tutorials too for a beginner like me to learn programming but do you know what all these tutorial's downside is ?
I’ll tell you what their downside is and you can upside it and cash in on it.

These tutorial books and websites, never compare each language's function for function or program for program.
What I mean is this.....
I have seen many websites that compare languages so beginners can see which language seems easier for them to learn and which ones too messy and difficult for them so they can forget about these ones.
But, their comparing comes in the form of one simple little program :
"Hello World" which simply outputs on the screen “Hello World.
Why not go a bit further ?
Why stop here by only providing an example of a function that “outputs a text on the screen ?
Why not write all the other functions too in each language so we can compare the languages’ neatness ?
Consider this…..
A beginner wants to learn Martial Arts.
He is confused whether to learn Karate or Kungfu.
So, he goes to 2 instructors and both of them demonstrate a single punch.
The Kungu punch seems to him easier to learn and use compared to the Karate punch from the demonstration and so he decides to learn Kungu.
But, the reality is, Kungfu’s other hand movements and even leg movements are harder to learn and master than Karate’s but the beginner never got the chance to find any of this out because the 2 instructors never demonstrated more than 1 move.
Sooner or later, the beginner finds it too hard to struggle and quits.
He is back to square one now.
Whose fault it is ?
The 2 demonstrators because they did not do a good job in the demonstration.

The same is happening in the programming world.
We find tutorials that compare languages based simply on one single program :
Hello World.
That is not really enough to judge a language’s “neatness, “complexity, “easy-to-learn-ness.
You must go beyond the basic “Hello World if you really want to show beginners each language’s “neatness, “complexity, “easy-to-learn-ness.
And to tell you the truth, there is not a single book or website that goes beyond the “Hello World. Pathetic, if you ask me !
So, who will be the first to open a tutorial website according to my suggestion and cash in on this market ? I am sure memberships can be sold here.
Hell, I for sure will consider it if it is low cost because I am sick and tired of searching for a proper “language comparing website or book.
There should be a website where each languages punch for a punch and kick for a kick is compared and not compare a kick to a punch and punch to a kick.
What I mean is, it should not compare one language’s one function with another language’s different function.
If one language’s “output function is demonstrated then that should be compared with another language’s “output function and not an “input function or “loop or “Boolean Expression.
Every single function’s code in a language should be compared with the codes of functions belonging to all the other popular languages.
I, as-well as the majority of beginners would definitely like to see this done to computer programming languages C, C++, C#, JAVA, BASIC, DELPHI.
Also the same goes for Server-Side web-programming languages PERL, PYTHON, COLDFUSION, PHP, RUBY, EIFFEL, SMALLTALK.
Finally the same too for Client-Side web-programming languages JAVASCRIPT, JS, VB-SCRIPT.
At the beginning the comparison tutorials can start off by creating small programs that plainly does the same things. From these demonstrations beginners and even professionals (who are interested to learn other languages) can easily see the differences between the syntaxes belonging to each language and easily pick-up the differences.
Afterwards, the comparison tutorials can slowly over the months turn towards developing fair sized programs/softwares. In the first 3 months the comparison tutorial can show how to write the following softwares in each different language :

1. a mini word-processor like notepad and then
2. a mini word processor like wordpad and then
3. a mini auto-responder
4. a mini ftp client
5. a mini email client

In the 2nd 3 month period :

6. a mini webserver and then
7. a mini ftp server and then
8. a mini mail server and then
9. a mini mailing list server and then
10. a mini web browser and then

Note : I use the word “mini for each of these programs/softwares which means creating such programs/softwares that has their basic feature only and not advance.
Writing advance features for each type of program/software will take too long and the coding will get too messy. Best to leave it the basic features and functions of each program/software.

Anybody knows of a website or a book that already does what I am looking for ?
If any professional reading this then why not run such a website and make money selling subscriptions ?

Anyway, I am thinking of getting into web programming and computer programming.
I have decided to learn Php for the web programming language as many have recommended that over Perl.
Plus, I have read howthingswork.com and it seems Php is more neat than Perl. I tried learning Perl once and the messyness that is really hard to learn put me off.
:cool:

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Depending on your experience with a language you can often make things look harder or easier than needed.
How would the uninitiated determine whether a language is "easier" than another? By looking at some sourcecode?
If so everyone would use Cobol or Basic as those have very simple structure and syntax.

You say you decided on php because it looks simpler than does Perl. And indeed it does. But that simplicity brings restrictions. There are many things Perl can do that php cannot, you can't compare them.
For someone with no programming experience at all Perl is indeed not the way to start, but that should not be a reason to diss Perl completely (there's enough valid reasons for that :) ).

You'll also find if you're serious about learning programming that you won't stick with one language for long and that over time you're picking languages for projects based on the project requirements.
After a few years you'll have picked up a veritable dictionary of languages.
From the top of my head, I've used the following (for example) over the course of my career so far (in no particular order):
IBM Basic
QuickBASIC
Visual Basic
WordBASIC
Pascal
Object Pascal
Delphi
C
C++
Java
Cobol
Fortran
Python
Ruby
REXX
Unix shellscripting
DOS batchscripting
Javascript
VBScript
VBA
ECMAScript
CSS
X86 Assembler

and probably a few more...

None are perfect for all solutions, some are well suited only to a very narrow application area but for that beat all others hands down.
Learning one of them well enough to write the kind of applications you want all demonstrated within a few months in each of them will cost more time than the tutorial can spend (and there will be few people who know each of them well enough to write all those apps).

And the beginner wouldn't be able to understand the benefits of either language for each purpose anyway...

Depending on your experience with a language you can often make things look harder or easier than needed.
How would the uninitiated determine whether a language is "easier" than another? By looking at some sourcecode?
If so everyone would use Cobol or Basic as those have very simple structure and syntax.

You say you decided on php because it looks simpler than does Perl. And indeed it does. But that simplicity brings restrictions. There are many things Perl can do that php cannot, you can't compare them.
For someone with no programming experience at all Perl is indeed not the way to start, but that should not be a reason to diss Perl completely (there's enough valid reasons for that :) ).

You'll also find if you're serious about learning programming that you won't stick with one language for long and that over time you're picking languages for projects based on the project requirements.
After a few years you'll have picked up a veritable dictionary of languages.
From the top of my head, I've used the following (for example) over the course of my career so far (in no particular order):
IBM Basic
QuickBASIC
Visual Basic
WordBASIC
Pascal
Object Pascal
Delphi
C
C++
Java
Cobol
Fortran
Python
Ruby
REXX
Unix shellscripting
DOS batchscripting
Javascript
VBScript
VBA
ECMAScript
CSS
X86 Assembler

and probably a few more...

None are perfect for all solutions, some are well suited only to a very narrow application area but for that beat all others hands down.
Learning one of them well enough to write the kind of applications you want all demonstrated within a few months in each of them will cost more time than the tutorial can spend (and there will be few people who know each of them well enough to write all those apps).

And the beginner wouldn't be able to understand the benefits of either language for each purpose anyway...

Well, since you know all these programs then all I can say is that you market research first if what I have suggested will make you enough money to write those tutrials for us.

What is the computer ?

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