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I have been thinking of learning some programming recently, but I don't feel confident enough. Is there any point in beginning with something like Zig or Go, and switching to something more serious later?

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[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 13 points 18 hours ago

Python is designed as an easy language. Yet it is a fundemental important language in the IT, backbone of many Linux operating systems and servers. One could even say... a serious language.

I personally wouldn't care if a language is called "easy" or not. You should also look at what it is capable at its peak and where it is used most often, if it works for you. Pick the language that you think fits you the best. I wouldn't call Zig as an easy language to get into, its still low level language.

[-] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 3 points 14 hours ago

Yeah, I'd like to add that there's something to being dedicated to one language, especially if you're self taught. I could certainly cobble something together in C, but having coded in python for nearly a decade I've built up an intuition for it. I know where things fail. I know what to do when things fail. I know what packages are common. I've built up a collection of utility functions. I know common patterns. Despite never having been taught algorithms or data structures, being committed to one language has led me to learn how to write efficient code in that language (rather than hoping switching to C will magically solve bad algorithms).

My code is still weird as hell and offends professional programmers, but it'd be hard to deny that I know what I'm doing.

[-] ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 2 points 17 hours ago

backbone of many Linux operating systems and servers

???

'Scuse me, hwat?

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Try uninstalling Python from Ubuntu and see what happens. (Do NOT actually try this.)

[-] dastanktal@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 15 hours ago

Did you not know that several package managers like DNF/yum are written in python? There's a ton of tools like that for each os and a lot of the time Python is the tool of choice.

[-] ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 hours ago

Dnf5 is written in C++

My point is that I wouldn't call it a backbone. There are always alternatives in different languages, and python version is oft not the default or main one. C(++) is the backbone of Linux.

Except Fedora I think, iirc they use python packages often.

this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
73 points (96.2% liked)

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