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Indeed that is a useful little skill to have. I am looking for skills at a somewhat higher level than regular expressions though. For instance, like some of th

by ashr 17y ago

Indeed that is a useful little skill to have. I am looking for skills at a somewhat higher level than regular expressions though. For instance, like some of those mentioned in the question above.

idlewords 17y ago
They make a nice, organic entry point into a lot of higher-level programming concepts, including some of the languages you list. I believe it makes more sense and is more motivating to start by solving problems rather than learning software development in the abstract. You can solve a lot of problems with pattern matching, and the ones you can't solve will then lead you to other interesting places.
- pj 17y ago
  idlewords is right. You may think regex is too low level, but like i said in my comment, you want to learn things that you can use anywhere. Almost every programming language has regex support. Plus, regex is hard for a lot of people -- even programmers. Most developers copy/paste regex into their code, rather than write it. And his other point, that it teaches you problem solving is important too. That's what software development is, solving problems. Learning a language won't help you solve problems. You have to ask yourself, "what problem do you want to solve?" The first thing I ask people when they want to start learning to program or build systems is: What kind of system do you want? You have to want a solution to a problem to really get good at programming. You have to create a problem and then solve it. Regex is good at that because when you understand regex, it's easy to find problems that it solves. Imagine wanting to find all files on your computer that contain phone numbers or email addresses. Something like that is very useful and you can do it quite easily with regex.
- ashr 17y ago
  Good point. That reminds me of how Programming Languages/Compiler construction courses helped me understand how high level programming languages worked. And it is a good way to get started with problem solving. Thanks for elaborating.

by ashr 17y ago

Indeed that is a useful little skill to have. I am looking for skills at a somewhat higher level than regular expressions though. For instance, like some of those mentioned in the question above.

idlewords 17y ago

They make a nice, organic entry point into a lot of higher-level programming concepts, including some of the languages you list. I believe it makes more sense and is more motivating to start by solving problems rather than learning software development in the abstract. You can solve a lot of problems with pattern matching, and the ones you can't solve will then lead you to other interesting places.

pj 17y ago
idlewords is right. You may think regex is too low level, but like i said in my comment, you want to learn things that you can use anywhere. Almost every programming language has regex support. Plus, regex is hard for a lot of people -- even programmers. Most developers copy/paste regex into their code, rather than write it. And his other point, that it teaches you problem solving is important too. That's what software development is, solving problems. Learning a language won't help you solve problems. You have to ask yourself, "what problem do you want to solve?" The first thing I ask people when they want to start learning to program or build systems is: What kind of system do you want? You have to want a solution to a problem to really get good at programming. You have to create a problem and then solve it. Regex is good at that because when you understand regex, it's easy to find problems that it solves. Imagine wanting to find all files on your computer that contain phone numbers or email addresses. Something like that is very useful and you can do it quite easily with regex.
ashr 17y ago
Good point. That reminds me of how Programming Languages/Compiler construction courses helped me understand how high level programming languages worked. And it is a good way to get started with problem solving. Thanks for elaborating.