[sac-forum] Re: Paul's Programming

What is your opinion of C? It has a reputation of being very fast and 
easy to learn, and I know of one case where it is being used in academic 
research to write programs for phyogenetic studies because it is so fast.
Stan

Paul Dickson wrote:

>I originally thought about doing this for the club's newsletter, but
>technical problems with it's production would be great (eg examples use a
>lot of vertical, but little horizontal space) and the articles would only
>appear slowly.  So I'm posting them here
>
>       -Paul
>-----
>
>
>It's been a long time since there's been a universal programming language
>the likes of BASIC.  At one point, just about every personal computer came
>with it, usually built directly into the ROM in lieu of a operating
>system.  But now I think I've found another language that's available for
>every machine, be it Windows, Mac, Linux, and mainframes; and no, it's not
>Java.
>
>I'm talking about a language called Python (named in honor of Monty
>Python's Flying Circus).  It is both a compiled language like Java, but it
>also contains an interpreter that can be used very similarly to the way
>BASIC was on those old PCs.  The interpreter can be used simply as an
>advanced calculator, or a test bed for developing programs.
>
>Unless you are running a distribution of Linux, you will have to download
>this programming language.  You'll find it on the web at:
>
>       http://www.python.org/download/
>
>I'll leave the installation up to you, but please post any problems you
>might have to this mailing list, SAC-Forum.  Either I, or someone else can
>then help you.
>
>On the above site, there are links to documentation and tutorials, so this
>series of articles won't be a in-depth look at the language, but more a
>quick look with examples.
>
>You can get to the interpreter in at least two ways: open a Command Prompt
>session and typing python, or launching idle.  From my terminal window on
>Linux, when I type "python", I get:
>
>    Python 2.3.3 (#1, May  7 2004, 10:31:40)
>    [GCC 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7)] on linux2
>    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information..
>    >>>
>
>You should get something similar.  To exit, press-and-hold the control key
>and press Z.  On Windows, this signals an End-of-File, so the program
>stops reading input and exits.  On Linux, the same function is Ctrl-D.
>
>The >>> is a prompt.  The cursor is waiting there for my input.
>
>    >>> 3+4*5
>    23
>    >>> a=3; b=6
>    >>> a+b
>    9
>    >>> c=a*b
>    >>> print c
>    18
>    >>> a="Testing"
>    >>> a.lower()
>    'testing'
>    >>> a[:4]
>    'Test'
>    >>> print a[:4]
>    Test
>    >>>
>
>This briefly shows some math, assigning variables, text strings, and
>slices of strings.
>
>Next time I'll touch on lists and dictionaries, which are very flexible
>versions of arrays and structures/records, respectively.  Eventually I'll
>show how to use Python to access the SAC databases.
>
>If you want a lot more info about this language, I recommend the book
>"Learning Python" by Mark Lutz and David Ascher.  The second edition is
>only 6 months old, so it's very up-to-date.
>
>       -Paul
>
>
>
>  
>

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