Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: Programming
From: Dragos Ruiu <dr () kyx net>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:18:52 -0800
On February 14, 2005 01:16 pm, Ernest Nelson wrote:
Most languages don't teach bad habits, bad references and teachers do. You can learn to write bad cobol just as easily as you can learn bad perl, c, or vb.
Aw come on... It's way easier to write bad COBOL than c or VB. But, actually, it's probably easier to write bad perl than any of those. Call me old fashioned but I'm still of the opinion that the best language to start out in is still PASCAL (for learning only, not for real code): Small function set to learn, not easy to get lost in and wander into the weeds in with some esoteric special features, strong typing, all the basics covered, etc... It's not OO but I still think that OO is dangerous, and you need to understand algorithms and functional programming, before you get enough OO rope to hang yourself. Python isn't bad either and is OO, but imho provides too much stuff that can confuse/distract new coders. It also provides too much OO candy to lean on so it doesn't force you to really have to understand basic algorithm knowledge that is crucial to building good code. Don't discount learning assembler either. You'll never regret it. (But it is daunting enough to dissuade the less dedicated beginning coders.) Java's not bad taken in isolation. It's only the evil thing people do with it typically that makes it inappropriate for beginning programmers imho. I don't care how many terabytes of RAM or petaMIPS you have. 9Mb for "hello world" is just wrong. my 2c, --dr -- World Security Pros. Cutting Edge Training, Tools, and Techniques Vancouver, Canada May 4-6 2005 http://cansecwest.com pgpkey http://dragos.com/ kyxpgp
Current thread:
- Re: Programming, (continued)
- Re: Programming linux user (Feb 11)
- Re: Programming zl4t3 (Feb 11)
- Re: Programming Valentin Höbel (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming Schott, Erik J Mr ANOSC/FCBS (Feb 11)
- Re: Programming Valentin Höbel (Feb 11)
- RE: Programming Enquiries (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming Andrew Aris (Feb 17)
- RE: Programming Enquiries (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming Lepore, Brian (Feb 11)
- Re: Programming David J ONEILL (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming Ernest Nelson (Feb 14)
- Re: Programming Dragos Ruiu (Feb 15)
- Re: Programming _ (Feb 17)
- RE: Programming Ernest Nelson (Feb 14)
- Re: Programming dayz (Feb 14)
- Re: Programming Valentin Höbel (Feb 14)
- Re: Programming Kevin Carlson (Feb 17)
- Re: Programming Valentin Höbel (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming David J ONEILL (Feb 14)
- RE: Programming David J ONEILL (Feb 15)
- Re: Programming aixroot (Feb 15)