On Thu, 3 Mar 2011 11:35:17 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

I know, I should ask this somewhere else, but I don't trust somewhere
else...

My son is an economics researcher for a think tank, and he uses statistics
programs -- SAS, SPSS, and SDATA -- all day long. He took it upon himself to
learn scripting for all three, an he's become pretty facile at writing
scripts in their dedicated scripting languages. Now he wants to learn
something about programming.

He has no interest in becoming a programmer, but he'd like to know something
that may be useful in his work (he had a math minor, and he's now going for
a Masters in applied mathematics). I used to dabble in C and Assembly, so
he's asked me what he should learn. I have no clue.

Some people he works with have recommended Python. I know nothing about it.
I suggested C, but I made the mistake to telling him it's like Latin for a
language major, and he hated Latin. He's not going to be doing anything that
relates to the Web. His interest is mostly in things that will help him deal
with data.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like he's going to deal with very large data sets. If he's OK
with m$oft, I'd suggest the data is kept in Access or Excel. Then
start with VB.net or visual basic to work the data.

It does depend on what he wants to do, but the various flavors of
basic are easy to learn and teach you programming concepts.

Karl