Introduction and Advice

[Lloyd Kvam]

On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 09:45 -0800, Jake Tingley wrote:
> Hello
> 
> My name is Jake and I live in Warner.  I am a high school math teacher
> in Lebanon and I am interested in working with Linux and doing some
> programming.
> 
> What is the best way to get started?
Figure out which LUG is the most convenient for you.  

DLSLUG meets in Hanover which could be convenient for attending a
meeting after school.  I have the library in Lebanon so that's also
convenient for you to come by and borrow books.  (We share the books
across all of the chapters and you'll be welcome at any chapter
meeting.)
http://dlslug.org/

> Is there a particular distribution I should be looking at?
There are many to pick from.  Ubuntu often works well for people who
prefer to manage their computer through a GUI clickable interface.

> What is a good first language to learn?
I love Python.  

complex numbers are a native data type.  integer arithmetic does not
overflow (2 ** 66 (meaning 2 to the 66 power) will simply get computed
rather than generating an error message for exceeding the supported
hardware limits).  The syntax is reasonably readable and there are a
large number of included and 3rd party modules for most programming
tasks.

You'll probably get recommendations for other languages.  You can narrow
down you decision based on the problems you are trying to solve.


> What do people think are good resources (both online and books)?

You can check out the library using the links below.

> Any help would be greatly appreciated
> Thanks,
> 
> Jake 
> 


-- 
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp
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