From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-03-10T18:07:37+09:00
Subject: Re: A couple of questions from a Ruby neophyte

all of the languages you're looking at are available for WinXP.
toy with each one and see which one strikes you as feeling right.  
They can do pretty much the same things. But every language has  
things it is better for. You don't have to use just one. Just use one  
you like or that meets your needs. They're tools, not religions.
But that said, at some point if you're seriously wanting to learn  
these things, understand they were all originally created in C on  
some form of Unix/Linux, so you couldn't hurt yourself by dabbling in  
C and definitely could learn a lot by learning to use the command  
line in a *nix system and learning the *nix style of directories and  
stuff. It makes a lot of languages make more sense. Seems like a tall  
order, but you won't regret it. Download Ubuntu or Kubuntu and  
install it to a partition or external hard drive. (or get a Mac and  
make it all easier on yourself)