There are still plenty of opportunities for Cobol coders, but I
wouldn't recommend that either.

I would recommend that you take a course that concentrates on the
fundamentals of modern programming and uses a modern language. I like
writing in languages that let you write clean code and be as object
oriented as you want to be. Dynamic languages such as Python and Ruby
are really great for that and are fun to work with. PHP, which I work
with daily is a big tent, and while it does a lot of things, it does
not provide much structure.

If PHP had been my first language, I might have gone into a different
business. PHP now has some OO features, but like C++ and Java, it is,
at its core, procedural. Procedural is not a bad thing… unless you
want to be OO.

Thanks,

Cary

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Lepczyk, Timothy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I work in a digital library and am transitioning to something more like a programmer and less like a librarian.  My strengths are in xslt and unix, but I've been working some with php and ruby on rails.  I'm trying to learn as much as I can, and am considering enrolling in an intro to C programming class (free through my university's night school).
>
> Is this worthwhile, or should I focus my attention elsewhere?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim Lepczyk
>



-- 
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com