Top 6 reasons why you should learn a scripting language, even if you are not a programmer

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Posted by hector in Software at 15:41 | Friday, July 27. 2007

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but everyone once in a while finds themselves doing repetitive tasks on a monitor screen. Well, aren't computers designed to take care of that?
By learning a scripting language you can easily make a computer do the tedious work for you and more! Here is a list of 6 more reasons to learn a scripting language, even if you are not a programmer.

It will let you automate repetitive tasks. This is definitely the biggest selling point. As I said before, computers are supposed to do the tedious work for us and by using a scripting language we can easily give commands to our emotionless servants in a language they understand.

They are simple to learn. If you are already a programmer, many scripting languages closely resemble the syntax of your favorite compiled language (small investment, big returns). If you are not a programmer, scripting languages are usually and very good introduction into the world of programming (medium investment, big returns).

Write it and run it. Who doesn't like instant gratification? When you write a script you don't necessarily have to transform it into machine code to run it. No compile, no wait, just run, right away. This of course carries a small performance penalty, but if you are after ultimate performance by using a script, then you are probably looking in the wrong place.

Most of them are free. Very inexpensive price of admission. No try before you buy, just use it and still have the peace of mind that it will always be yours.

Community and commercially supported. Some people are very passionate about their scripting language. If you have one close to you, he'll be more than happy to answer your questions. If you don't have one around, you can always find them at Internet forum flame wars defending their scripting language of choice. If you still can't find one, you can always find a company that will give you commercial support. Just make sure to read the manual before you even start looking.

It will make you stronger. Having another weapon on your arsenal can only benefit you. Or at least give you bragging rights.

So now you have all the reasons to start learning a scripting language. Which one should you pick? I'll look at different ones next time to help you decide which one is right for you.

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Pick Ruby or Python, PHP is dead.

Also, Ruby and Python come with interactive consoles that make doing simple tasks easy. You don't even have to write a script file, just fire up the console and run the command. Even more instant gratification.

PHP, btw, doesn't have a good console. I've seen it advertise one, and I've tried to use it, but it doesn't work very easily.

But I'm giving away my next post about why PHP is facing technological Darwinism.

Another comment, "Simple to learn" isn't a universal rule. I'd say they're simple to get started with, but languages like Ruby and Python (again not PHP) have some advanced features that once mastered make your scripted code very powerful and quite beautiful.

FYI, I just got my Erlang book. That should be cool

#1 Andy Koch on 2007-07-30 11:03

I'd say you should decide what you want to do, and then pick the language that has the most support for what you want to do. If you want to automate some tasks in Word, then Visual Basic might be a good option. If you want to make your Firefox browser do something automatically, then JavaScript is probably a good bet.

For anything else, Ruby and Python are good options. They are easy to play with.

#2 fred.bertsch on 2007-07-30 11:17

Well, I was proud of myself for learning PHP until Andy came along and rained on my parade. Thanks!

#3 Chris Hill (Homepage) on 2007-07-30 11:20

PHP Dead??? I'm not sure. Yes, is not the coolest thing right now and it's main developers don't all have MacBook Pros, but is anything but dead. It still is the fastest and most popular way nowadays to get dynamic content on a generic web host provider.
Besides, PHP Eats Rails for Breakfast

#4 hector on 2007-07-30 11:24

ok, that should probably read "PHP is Dead *to me*", but hyperbole always gets better ratings

agree that PHP is popular, but now the discussion is headed towards web sites and then it's not fair to compare PHP vs. Ruby/Python/ etc. PHP is indeed easiest to make one-off web pages, or small simple web apps. I always like to say, it's easy to make a bad web site.

But take a large complex web app, given PHP and choose your framework versus Ruby / Rails framework and I'll bet money that Rails wins. Of course one could likely never do such a study objectively, so you really just have developer experience.

And in my experience, Ruby/Python code is more elegant, easier to read, more maintainable and simply more pleasurable to work with than a comparable task in PHP.

The edge PHP currently has it's that it will occassionally run faster than Ruby. This, however, I beleive to be a fleeting advantage as the Ruby community continues to gain critical mass. Python almost always beats PHP for speed.

#5 Andy Koch on 2007-07-30 12:32

I haven't used Ruby or Python, but judging by the number of high-profile apps that continue to use PHP, I'd say it's going to be a LONG time before it's dead. Wordpress is probably one of the most popular blogging apps these days and it's foundation is PHP/MySQL.

It also seems that most forum applications, including ours (http://www.pcdoctor-community.com/forum) -- SMF -- are built on PHP as well.

So yes, while it may be dead to you, it certainly is going to be around for many years to come.

#6 Chris Hill (Homepage) on 2007-07-31 08:25

Andy, yes. I'll give that one to you. PHP is kind of dead to me too, but If I had to do something "quick-n-dirty" I'd definitely use it. Now though, I think I would definitely take a look at GWT for anything significant I'd have to write for the web.

#7 hector on 2007-07-31 08:34

Which is exactly why I think PHP is still alive today. I think "quick-n-dirty" is the 21st century requirement for many web apps, especially for open-source applications that need wide spread appeal and use. If Wordpress used something other than PHP, I think the plugin library would be a fraction of the size it is now. PHP certainly has it's place on the web.

#8 Chris Hill (Homepage) on 2007-07-31 09:54

GWT is designed for something very specific. It's designed for complex web apps like gmail and google maps. The idea is to make it possible to write an application that's as complex as a desktop application, but to put it in a web browser.

Quick and dirty is not what it's about.

#9 fred.bertsch on 2007-07-31 11:37

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