RE: Jumpstart a programming ability

["Glenn Maxey" <glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com>]

As Marguerite stated, Java, C++, and C are really heavy duty. Probably
overkill. Fortran, Pascal, Basic... old hat.

Javascript could be useful, but I wouldn't recommend it. Why? Because
its flavors change depending upon the browser. I recently backed out all
of the javascript in my HTML systems, because I couldn't get them to
reliably work. Moreover, once you learn another language, you'll be able
to pick-up what you need to know about Javascript by looking at other
people's HTML pages.


Instead, my recommendation is Perl.

Why? Because you can do things with Perl. You aren't limited to having
it only work inside of a flaky browser; you aren't limited to the
security restrictions of the browser. You aren't limited to HTML
(javascript). You aren't limited to Microsoft applications
(VisualBasic).

For example, I use Perl to post-process HTML that is generated by other
off-the-shelf tools. I search-and-destroy hard-coded HTML font
definitions so that the CSS can control the look-and-feel. I do other
things to the HTML to make a unified system, like navigation across the
top, copyright on the bottom, etc. I don't want to do this stuff by
hand, particularly when the HTML is generated regularly and when there
are several hundred files to edit. I let my Perl tools do it. (Makes me
a hero when I can change major features of a whole HTML system just by
running my tools.)

Perl can be used to process all sorts of files, such as RTF or MIF (text
based). Perl is an interpretted language, meaning I don't have to
save/compile/link/run; I just save/run. Perl can be plugged into your
Web-server so that you run Perl scripts instead of CGI scripts. 

Other tech writers can shoot me down for this recommendation, and they
might be justified. 

Even in the Microsoft environment, a little VisualBasic can go a long
way... particularly if you have access to the Word/Excel VB Application
Programming Interface (API). 

Javascript can be useful for minor programmatic things you'd want your
HTML pages to do, but for real depth and power from a website, you need
CGI... might as well go with Perl.

I've found Perl to be really helpful. Where I'm working now, the
developers use Perl frequently in managing their builds and in doing
code generation. In some cases, I've been able to "build on their
efforts" by putting in hooks that I could use for my tasks. (Part of my
duties is to document an API.)

Glenn Maxey
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
Tel. +1 303.223.5164
Fax. +1 303.223.5275
glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com



> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Posada [mailto:jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 2:26 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Jumpstart a programming ability
> 
> 
> If you weren't a programmer, but you wanted to increase your strength
> as a technical writer by adding a programming ability, what would you
> go for that would satisfy the following conditions:
> 
> 1) Make you more attractive as a technical writer in a tough job
> market.
> 2) Can get into without having taken the customary path of
> basic/Cobol/c
> 3) Would actually be of value to those looking at resumes.
> 4) Is not a dead-end and can be leveraged into other ares.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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