Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[LeoDeBeo]

i wanted to say something about the subject of learning cs
i'm graduating in economics option management information systems but man: 
a lot of buzzwords are used, believe me. some people clearly don't know 
about what they're talking
i'm also interested in very technical skills and learned to program on my 
own in different languages to master the concepts of cs. I didn't know much 
in the beginning but if i knew what i know now, i would have learned more 
in a shorter time. 
best way according to me
1) learn Python and basic linux administration
2) learn C en C++ and Java (preferably by studying common data structures 
as trees, recursion, search algorithms, ...and some Gui stuff (Gnome, KDE 
or whatever)
3) learn to configure some basic programs (dns, sendmail, apache) 
4) evaluate what you learned by studying the linux sources (learning to 
configure it too)
5) try some design language (UML and object oriented design)
6) learn about design patterns and frameworks (which you will automatically 
encounter in previous steps without you knowing)
7) in the mean time, try to understand what databasesystems are all about 
(object and relational database systems)
8) study some XML (you should have started some HTML with Python and CGI, 
or learn PHP, oh no yet another language). XML and Python fit together, so 
you can do XML earlier.
9) learn about application servers (Enhydra) and content management systems 
(Zope or Midgard) 
10) if you have time left: study some machine language for the joy of it.
11) people tell me that i should mention LISP but i'm content with the 
functional features of Python

i didn't say this is an easy job ;-)
open source software and the net really are indispensible to get this 
knowledge: beautiful times these are.
did i forget something ?
wrote this because i would have benefited from this list as a guideline 
when i was (let's say) 16 (or so) and it might prove helpful to others. I
n fact isn't this a beautiful list for a cs-degree?? 

oh man shit i let myself go. is this still a message to be posted on the 
python newsgroup?? ;-)

conclusion:
Python is the best starting point

Tip: if you really want to go further try Donald Knuths computer sciences 
books.

> 
> 
> On Wed, 9 May 2001, Erik Max Francis wrote:
> 
>> Laura Creighton wrote:
>> 
>> > This is an incredibly bad fit.  The students, almost without
>> > exception,
>> > wanted hands-on-experience.  They wanted examples.  And they wanted to
>> > write code.  The professors wanted to talk about concepts -- they
>> > wanted
>> > to do computer science, and (in my view quite reasonably), took the
>> > position that if you didn't like this sort of stuff, then you didn't
>> > like computer science, and maybe you should do something else.
>> 
>> They're right, to some extent.  There's a reason it's called computer
>> science, rather than dorky programming 101.  There are fundamental
>> concepts that, once you learn right, will apply to any programming
>> language you ever encounter.  Teach someone a programming language, and
>> they can write simple programs in it.  Teach someone computer science,
>> and they can learn any programming language and master difficult
>> concepts.
>> 
> 
>  True. But trying to learn CS without knowing anything about programming
> is sort of like trying to major in math without having evern learned
> arithmetic or algrbra.
>  Of course, nowadays a lot more beginning CS majors have already been
> exposed to programming -- either in high school, or thru their own
> hacking. (On the other hand -- if I look to the local high schools
> for an example: they're going to learn "keyboarding skills", but they're
> probably going to have to pick up programming skills on their own! )-:
> 
> -- Steve (with 3 kids in C'villes public schools) Majewski
> 
> 
> 
>