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Member suggestions for a quick and simple computer language? — Parallax Forums

Member suggestions for a quick and simple computer language?

SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
edited 2009-12-27 08:50 in General Discussion
I'm looking to learn a new computer language to help me do quick and simple jobs. I know Java and C++, but it seems that even for simple things these languages quickly bloom into a full size project. What about a language that you can just hack together, without a real concern for speed or extendability? Preferably, the language would make file manipulation and internet interaction easy without having to find or develop whole code libraries. It would be nice if it was cross platform, but at the least it needs to work well on windows. Is there any experience that forum members are willing to share?

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Comments

  • Mike2545Mike2545 Posts: 433
    edited 2009-12-26 16:20
    I think you should consider yourself lucky that you can write programs in those languages...

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    Mike2545
  • iDaveiDave Posts: 252
    edited 2009-12-26 16:50
    Sounds like your describing Python.

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    "A complex design is the sign of an inferior designer."
  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2009-12-26 17:19
    For file manipulation AWK is good. I haven't checked to see about internet interaction since I am not interested in that. You may also want to check out Processing. It is easy, but if you need to you can add Java routines.

    John Abshier
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2009-12-26 17:29
    Haven't tried internet access with it, but what about REXX?

    http://www.rexxla.org/

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  • Kevin WoodKevin Wood Posts: 1,266
    edited 2009-12-26 17:56
    I suggest either Perl or Python. Both will meet your requirements, but they each have a very different approach & very distinctive subcultures.

    You can try them both out for free on Windows by downloading them from ActiveState (ActivePerl & ActivePython), which are very nice distributions with excellent documentation.
  • MikeKMikeK Posts: 118
    edited 2009-12-26 18:26
    Having used both Perl and Python, I'd go with Python. The built-in libraries are more extensive for what you want, the written language has less "line noise", and the OO aspects are part of the language. One reason to go with Perl over Python would be if you're going to be making extensive use of regular expressions. They're part of the syntax in Perl. In Python, they're function calls.

    IMO, the learning curve for Python is less steep than it is for Perl.

    Mike
  • mwalimumwalimu Posts: 44
    edited 2009-12-26 19:08
    Forth
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2009-12-26 21:49
    Perl. The CPAN module depository is enormous. Here's a program that downloads CNN's home page, then extracts and prints the headline for the top "Latest news" story:

    use strict;
use LWP::Simple;
my $page = get("http://www.cnn.com");
$page =~ m/<h4>Latest news<\/h4><ul class="cnn_bulletbin">  <li><a href=[noparse][[/noparse]^>]+>([noparse][[/noparse]^<]+)/;
print $1


    That's only five lines!

    Get Perl for Windows here: www.activestate.com/activeperl/. It' free. Then do the online tutorial, or buy the book.

    -Phil

    Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 12/26/2009 9:55:32 PM GMT
  • AlsowolfmanAlsowolfman Posts: 65
    edited 2009-12-27 08:50
    If you want it to display the news on the right margin just change it to foxnews.com [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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