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I am really hoping that someone can answer some questions for me. I am trying to start learning to programming and don't exactly know where to start. I have narrowed down my choices for programming/scripting to Ruby and Python.

I am wanting to focus on web programming and systems administration tasks. I found cloud foundry and thought that might be a good place to start to test apps but may I'm getting ahead of myself. I really am unsure who to even begin or which one to choose. That I know is a difficult quests because I know how everyone has there own opinions about which language is best. So I guess here are my questions

  1. For a beginner programmer who last used vb 6 which would be better ruby or python?
  2. Should I even worry about a service like Cloud Foundry at this stage?

I really don't know where to start and I am hopping that you can help

Thanks

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closed as not constructive by Martijn Pieters, the Tin Man, Shog9♦ Jun 17 '13 at 23:23

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
    
This question is so open-ended that it's not possible to answer it, and, as a result, is off-topic for Stack Overflow. –  the Tin Man Jun 17 '13 at 23:21

1 Answer 1

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No, don't even begin to worry about which cloud service to use at this point; really, at this point I wouldn't even worry about what language to use. As a beginner, there is a temptation to just try to get results and rush through the learning process to get things done. And if you're in a time constraint or working for a company, that's probably pretty viable. However, if you are learning this for your own enjoyment or if you want to become truly proficient, I would recommend taking the time to learn the fundamentals of programming and computer science and how things really work rather than finding the best framework or library and saying "makeServer()". One, it will be a lot more interesting to know what is actually going on when you do end up using other libraries, and two it will make it easier for you to debug problems in your code.

If you do end up choosing Python, I would recommend going through this modified version of SICP (historically one of the best textbooks for teaching computer science) that has been modified to use Python. Even UC Berkeley has switched to this textbook for its introductory computer science students.

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+1 Well said. Trying to run before they can even sit-up is a sure path to slamming into the wall. –  the Tin Man Jun 17 '13 at 23:24

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