Forum Thread: A Simple Question

Hello, I'm not exactly new here, as I have been reading tutorials ang guides on Null Byte for quite a while now, and I usually find them very interesting. Up until now, I've been busy with schoolwork, and have not really had the opportunity to learn much outside of this site. However, as summer approaches, and schoolwork begins to lighten, I feel that I now have enough time to commit myself to such a project, and the first thing I've decided to do is learn a programming language (or language), and this brings me to my question: Which programming language should I learn, and aprox. How many hours of learning will it take for myself to have enough of an understanding of it to apply it to learning the skill of hacking?

If Tl;dr, just read the last two sentences.

Thanks in advance,
~gortriss

8 Responses

I would recommend Python or C.

Python
Pros:

Simple, easy syntax
Many built-in functions
Has similar syntax to C, making transitions easier.

Cons:

Not cross-platform (it must be installed manually)
It is interpreted (it's a scripting language), so recursive commands are slower

C
Pros:

It can be run on virtually any hardware (I've run C code on my Wii memory)/cross platform
It is very fast with recursive commands
It helps you learn more about memory, etc.

Cons:

You have to build most of your own functions
The code is usually one to two times longer than Python code

C will most definitely take longer to learn, but time mostly depends on your studying. There's no way to tell you when you can apply these to hacking. I guess you could say that making some code that changes a program's behavior is first-step hacking.

C|H of C3

Thanks for your input, from what you said, it sounds like Python is an easier language, but C is universal, and much faster. Thanks for recommending these too me. I'll make sure to let you know of my decision once I do some research of my own.

Many thanks
~gortriss

Glad to help.

C is a powerful language, but very unforgiving.

ghost_

Python is a nice language to start learning, and it gives you a good base to learn C afterwards. It's simple and powerful.

BASH scripting isn't completely a programming language, but it's good to learn, too.

I'm looking forward to learn Ruby and/or Perl in the near future, as I've heard they're good options too, but I think with just Python you'll be fine.

Ciuffy wrote an article that may help you decide.

Python. It's a straightforward language that's VERY powerful, but also teaches you the concepts (loops, importing, variables, functions) in a much easier way. Also, there are TONS of free tutorials and courses out there.

(just to show my age, I started with.... COBOL)

If your aiming to become a hacker go for a low level programming language which will lets you do hard concepts such as managing memory and allocating memory.

Go for C then go for a scripting language of your choice(Python Ruby Perl LUA)
And put 2 hours effort everyday

Thank you, everybody who has helped me out. The community here is amazingly friendly to newcomers, such as myself, and I look forward to becoming a part of this community. From what I've seen here (plus a bit of my own research), I think I'll start out with python, but then move on to other languages, such as C.

Many thanks,
~gortriss

8 Responses

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