

Getting Started with Programming using the Internet - Alexnb

Hello everyone. I am not really a beginner to programming, but certainly no expert. I want to get started in making programs that can connect to the Internet to do something. Currently I work with C, Java, and Python. But, I hate Java, so pretend like I didn't just say that. I would like some help getting started in being able to make programs that use the Internet. That is vague I know, so let me try and clarify. I just want to be able to maybe take information off a webpage, and either save it to a text file or something as simple as that to start with. Maybe do the same with a small web-app, because from what I have read python can be very good at that with webpy. Anyway, if you have a book recommendation, a website, or any advice you could give me, please help a brother out.<p>Hope I wasn't to vague!
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pius
When I was in your shoes I got a lot out of taking a look at the language
documentation for the http related libraries in the languages I used. Often
times there are good examples that'll get you started for basic stuff.

In Ruby, for example, you'd check out open-uri: [http://www.ruby-
doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/open-uri/rdoc/index.ht...](http://www.ruby-
doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/open-uri/rdoc/index.html)

For Java, I found both of the O'Reilly books (Nutshell and, especially,
Examples) to be pretty useful.

If you're really looking to get started quickly on developing a database-
driven web application, I'd highly recommend grabbing a Python or Ruby
framework like Django or Rails and then making your way through Phil
Greenspun's Software Engineering for Internet Applications. (freely available
here: <http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/>).

Good luck!

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inklesspen
Dive Into Python (an excellent Python tutorial for people who have programmed
before) covers these things in chapters 8 and 11.

<http://www.diveintopython.org/toc/index.html>

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brentr
Have you tried understanding the Berkeley Sockets API with C? There are some
good sites that cover basics: <http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/>

If you are on Windows, search "winsock".

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astrec
Work through the Django tutorial and then take a look at Beautiful Soup
<http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/>

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Alexnb
Ha, thats funny because I just downloaded that yesterday. But thanks for your
input.

