C or Python ???

Question

If I am going to learn C at college,
Should I learn python as a hobby ?
I have no prior programming knowledge.....
except for a few pages of 'leaning C' by Angie Hansen..

Answer 1

Not an answer, but yet another question. C or C++? Or are they now synonymous? As someone who started programming before a C compiler existed (and before the PC existed), I have found the evolution of different programming platforms fascinating. After working in a half-dozen languages over the years, it's become a matter of choosing the appropriate tool for solving a problem, not living in a specific language.

To address the question underlying your question: a programming language is a tool. It's also an 'artificial' language, not to be confused with English, French, Spanish, Russian, etc. Thinking in a language is a way of demonstrating mastery of the language. Separate from that, there are fundamental programming concepts that are language-independent. Learn those, and you can adapt to new languages much more quickly. Since you are about to go to college, are you planning to go into programming as a profession, or just trying to be better prepared for college? I'd advocate reading 'literature' rather than studying a programming language. By 'literature' I mean well written books, whether they be scientific (e.g., "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking) or pure fiction (Piers Anthony, Stephen King, Erica Jong, Hemingway) or 'arts' (Shakespeare, Coleridge, Emily Dickenson, etc.).

Good luck! You are about to embark upon a most exciting, scary, exhilirating, and mind-expanding time of your life.

Answer 2

If Platform independence is what you need then Python and C++ are what you need. C# is really only for windows and objective C is really only for Mac. What makes a language valuable are 1) The number of available libraries and APIs for your programming goals C++ beats the rest 2) The ease of use and readability of code Python is slightly better than C++ 3) The stability of the programming platform. C++ is unlikely to change and become incompatible... Python is more fluid I would go for C++ Whatever language you use get a good IDE...

Answer 3

Maybe. Python is far easier to learn and pickup. It's useful for professionals as well, because it's a powerful high level language (useful for standalone programs, scripts, website code, and so on).

Learning C won't help you learn Python. If you want to learn Python, learn Python. Python is built with C, but the language isn't C like. Whitespace matters (indentation levels), there are no standard for loops (it's an iteration over a sequence), you don't think in terms of standard data types (lists, maps, containers are concepts that are actually closer to C++, but in Python it's a primitive), it's duck typed vs. strongly typed, no pointers. Need I go on?

Python won't help you for your initial college classes. But it may play an important part if you want to grow as a serious programmer.

If you want to start with C, I urge you to start with Kernigan and Ritchie's The C Programming Language. It's on Amazon. It's the standard book to learn C from.

Answer 4

first you can study 'C',then it would help you in learing python.

"Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language". Python, although similar in some ways to Perl and Java, is its own creature. Knowing Perl or Java will help you learn Python, but it's just as easy to pick it up as your first language. Python is great for both shell and web scripting and is making it's way into every facet of computing from Google to video games.

Answer 5

you should master C first before going python. C is the basic of all programming languages. what you learn from C is most likely applicable to all programming languages nowadays whether windows or dos-based. C is very exciting... after learning the basics of C, you can flee to any different programming languages you wanted...

Answer 6

Pythin is a capable language, but if I were you starting fresh ,aim for C++ or C#

Answer 7

Get on to learning C.
That's your comfort zone.
Should you need to be advertuous,
then pursue further.

www.SkyQuestComMedia.com

Answer 8

learn python
as it is easier to self-teach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
http://www.python.org/
http://www.diveintopython.org/
http://www.brpreiss.com/books/opus7/html/book.html

also
for learning computer software concepts
consider
"SCHEME"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28programming_language%29
http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/
http://www.schemers.org/Documents/
http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/drscheme/
http://community.schemewiki.org/?scheme-faq-programming

Answer 9

yes you should..

Answer 10

no you don't do it