Re: Python (was Re: I did not inhale)

On 21/08/2024 09:36, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:

On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 09:26:41 +0200
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> boringly babbled:

So I don't question that it is interesting, informative, or a pleasure
to read.  I question that it is /necessary/.  You simply cannot argue
that people who want to program for Linux /must/ read that book.  There
is no justification for that claim.  There is no justification for
claiming that people wanting to program for Linux need to read any books
on the topic at all, nor for claims that people need to "know POSIX" to
be able to write code for Linux and/or in C.

 Only knowing core C will severely limit what you can do on any OS. If
you're happy just coding up file processors or some self contained
mathematical algo and simply writing to stdout or a file then fine, but to do
anything more sophisticated you'll need to know the OS API whether its posix
+ X on *nix or Win32 on Windows.

No, you do not.
Why is this so difficult for some people to understand?  You need to know about the parts relevant to the things you are doing.  Modern OS's are /huge/.  It is meaningless to talk about "knowing the OS API", because before you have learned 10% of it, major new versions will be available and at least part of your knowledge may be outdated.  By the time you have learned /all/ of it, several versions have passed and you've been fired from your job for pissing around for years learning things that have no relevance to your task, and you've probably forgotten at least half of it.  And then you can start learning the third-party libraries and APIs that are not part of the OS but useful for the task.
If you are writing network software for Linux, how is it relevant to learn about the sound API, or the more advanced filesystem API's ?  If you are writing a gui program with QT, why should you be interested in X APIs or POSIX threading and file handling - you'll be using the QT libraries and APIs for graphics, threading and file handling.
I have not suggested, or even hinted, that all you need is "core C" - what you need is the knowledge that is relevant to the task at hand, regardless of the OS, language, or whatever.

 

There are a thousand and one ways to learn about the workings of Linux -
and that's counting "reading books" as one way, regardless of /which/

 Linear learning is usually better than snippets from google. If you want
to learn a shakespear play you read the book, you don't google little bits
of it at a time.
 

When did I suggest that snippets from google was "the" way to learn?
I'd agree that reading a book or two is likely to be better than reading nothing but "snippets from google".  You now have another 999 strawmen to go through.