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I wouldn't recommend PHP to learn as a programming language, if your goal is to have a general purpose programming language at your disposal. PHP is a fine language for building dynamic web pages, but it won't help you to slice and dice a big text file or process a bunch of XML or do some other "odd job" that you don't want to do by hand. Ruby has many devotees. Perl is great for processing text files, but I (personally) would not want to write a large application in Perl (Koha notwithstanding). Python has a really nice syntax and offers good opportunities for exploring different programming styles (functional, OO, procedural). Also, Python's type system is neither cumbersome nor anemic. JavaScript is an interesting suggestion. With Rhino (http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/), you can write whole software applications in JavaScript, or harness Java libraries from the comfort of a dynamic language. I had a coworker at Amazon (in my former life) who implemented a fairly sophisticated tool using JavaScript and Rhino, and a big Java library I'd written. But since it's also implemented in every web browser and so neatly interacts with HTML, you're likely to find opportunities to use it if you do any web development at all. I wish I could plug my favorite language, Clojure (http://www.clojure.org/), but I'm not certain that it's ready to go out of the box unless you're already familiar with at least one of Lisp, Scheme, or Java. Its other drawback is that few people use it (yet), but it has a very lively and helpful development community. Like JavaScript (and Ruby, and Python, if you use JRuby or Jython), you can use it seamlessly with Java libraries, or as a standalone language. Good luck! Mark On Mar 24, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Ethan Gruber wrote: > Hi Jenny, > > What are your professional interests in the library? You should pick a > language that is relevant and a useful tool for doing what interests you. > > Ethan > > On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 3:31 PM, Rosalyn Metz <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Jenny, >> >> I discovered (i think through a code4libber) the other day a great >> series of videos on learning python. It was put out by Google as part >> of a series they do for their employees. >> >> http://code.google.com/edu/languages/ >> >> I myself don't know Python (i wish i did), but that section of the >> page seems the most robust. That in conjunction with a book might be >> useful. And if your partner knows it, all the better. >> >> Also we've had this debate in the past. Maybe taking a look in the >> code4lib archives might also be useful. >> >> Rosalyn >> >> >> On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 3:24 PM, jenny <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>> A newly-minted library school grad who has up to this point focused my >>> studies on Rare Books and Book Arts, I've been interested in getting >>> back into some programming--I took two classes in college >>> (VisualBASIC), have a smattering of web design and php, MySQL, >>> exposure, but I'd like to try my hand at teaching myself a language in >>> my free time. My partner is a former dotcom programmer (now studying >>> neuroscience) and has offered to assist when needed, so I'm not >>> completely on my own (thank goodness). >>> >>> My question is, where would you recommend I would begin? What's hot >>> right now in the library world? Python, PERL, Ruby? Any advice you'd >>> have for a beginner like me or even recommendations for online courses >>> would be extremely appreciated >>> >>> JC >>> >>