Language to learn, for learning

[ResidentBiscuit]

Ok so my sister in law works for a company that does a bunch of software for hospitals. She's basically the one who goes out to these potential client hospitals and talk to them and they tell her what kind of software they need. It's then her job to tell the software engineers what they need to make. Anyways, she asked me if I had any books laying around that she could borrow and I asked what language she needs, and she didn't know. She just said she was told she learn how to program. I'm assuming, she just kind of needs the basics and more theory of how languages work, than an actual mastery of a language. Anyways, I, threw a couple recommendations out there, but I'm not really sure on this. When I started programming, it wasnt because my job told me to, so I could kind of learn at my own pace. So, any of you have any recommendations I could give her? I told her C++ and Java already.

[chrisname]

If she wants to learn to program just so she can have a basic understanding of programming, then Java will be good enough.

If she wants to understand computers, assembly language is ideal.

If she wants to understand the mathematics behind computer science, a language like Haskell is perfect.

[z05DSL3A]

I would say that you need some clarification on her requirements. If she is doing an analysts job, it may just be that she requires some method of communicating the requirements to the developers. Something like UML^[1] maybe worth looking at.

Regards
Grey Wolf

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language

[Cheraphy]

I'd suggest asking her to find out what languages the software engineers she talks to use most, and learn them or something very similar to them.

Also, HOLY CRAP GREY WOLF IS BACK. Hi Grey Wolf, we missed you.

[z05DSL3A]

I'm just finishing off a sideline project so I'm going to have more free time. I asked twicker to reinstate my account so I can take part in the forum F.A.Q. 'project'.