Where to spend my limited time? Perspective on Python vs JS

I continue to learn with python as it’s a language I’ve become familiar with. Now I know the language well, it means I can explore other elements of computer science without the overhead of learning another language in parallel.

It will of course then make learning other languages much easier, but if I do not learn one language as full as possible, then I’ll continue this cycle of only scratching the surface like I did with Java, C# and Ruby. I’d like to be able to see how different languages handle the same problems so to start from scratch now with another language (other than Lisp) for me doesn’t work.

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Keep on! Try to finish the book and when make a new assessment of what you want to accomplish and for what reason you start to learn programming. Maybe it will be a good idea to continue to follow the Python route.

If you know what you want to accomplish with programming the decision will be much easier what kind of language you should learn and use. Python is still high in the game for certain use cases.

I have now personally stopped my Python learning and jumped to JS.
For me it makes more sense as I can more directly get involved with making small projects on my own.

I think I was 2 exercises ahead of you and spend about 6 month on Python aswell with no prior coding experience. But I’m happy I did.

Despite the syntax is a little different in Java script all the concepts seems to be more or less the same, which has allowed me to do a codecademy free introcourse and and I feel I understand most of it immediately because of the foundation from LPTHW.

However I’m sure when I get further everything will probably start to be quite different, and as @gpkesley mentions at one point it’ll be time to dig deep.
I have the feeling the LPTHW is more than anything about getting the foundations set which carries into other languages…

I just really want @zedshaw to release his Java script course…

Same here!

Python is also a great language for quick and dirty command line scripts, because compared to other languages the syntax is very close to everyday speach. If you are familiar with Python’s I/O API and the re module you can automate a lot of tasks that involve transforming files/data with close to zero effort.

I think it is fair enough that Zed is focusing his training on JS, especially as LPTHW has been out for ages. As he says, JS has moved on and offers a lot these days.

I certainly don’t want to get into a ‘this language is better than that’ situation because all languages have some merit. We also know that one size does not fit all so variety helps with experience and employability.

@ktrager did you (or anyone else) get this email and check it out? I wasn’t aware that @zedshaw has started them but it seems he has…

Today at 10am EST I’m going to be doing another live stream where I rip out the ArangoDB database and put in a new data layer using:

http://knexjs.org/
https://bookshelfjs.org/

Everyone is invited to watch for free, and you can watch it live on the website I’ll be working on at:

https://learnjsthehardway.com/live/

The code I’ll be working on is at:

https://git.learnjsthehardway.com/zedshaw/learnjsthehardway/src/branch/master/lib/data.js

So if you’ve always wondered how someone refactors a piece of code efficiently, then come and watch.

Thank you for your time,

Zed

I got the email too, but it was a little short term for me. Couldn’t make it that day. But it sounded very interesting.

Oh yes, thanks for the hint. That mail ended up in my spam folder.

Is there an archive somewhere where we can watch the streams afterwards?

Didn’t get it, but signed up now.
:crossed_fingers:next time.

Thanks for the heads up

I actually tell people to learn 4 programming languages if they want to do this professionally. It’s at about your 3rd or 4th that you actually understand how code works. So just finish the python then go do JavaScript. You don’t lose anything by learning more than one, you only gain.

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Good idea! Alex tells me to learn Awk.

Great! thanks for sharing.