- #51
Monique
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graphic7 said:If you're used to C syntax it's very easy to learn Perl.Absolutely true.
Not true.faust9 said:If you are not proficient with Unix programming then Perl has a very steep learning curve.
In bioinformatics Perl is the main programming language, mainly because of the ability to use regular expressions when search DNA and protein files. So for bioinformatics I'd say definately learn Perl, but before doing that I'd start with learning C. By learning C you get programmed yourself to write clean scripts and declare variables, write your own functions etc. so you get a more comprehensive understanding of programming. Learning Perl after that is a piece of cake.
But running a program written in Perl can take considerably longer to run than a program written in C. Thirty secs vs 2 secs. Probably because Perl is compliled while it is being run, while C requires compilation before it can be run?
Anyway.. I'm not a hard-core programmer, but I found that programming in C and Perl is simple and that running Unix is not a big deal either. There are some things I still need to learn though, like extracting data from online databases..
Two questions I don't quite get yet:
1. What's the difference between scripting languages and others?
2. What's exactly is object oriented? What I understand is that it allows you to bring units from different programmers together into a single program? What's the use of being object oriented?