oi, computer geeks

[quesarah]

I'm checking out some of the Bioinformatics classes that are offered Winter 2006. The only class currently offered is Intermediate Perl Programming. OK that's over my head, so let's check out the prerequisite class Introduction to Perl Programming. Prerequisites for that class are: " Familiarity with UNIX, C and/or Bourne shells. The C programming language and sed/awk/grep is recommended."

OK, I have a passing familiarity with UNIX -- been a while since I've used it but I'm sure it'll come back. But C? Never used it. Here's my question: is this a topic that I'd be better off taking a class to learn? Or should I just grab a good reference and get reading?

Thanks.

Comments

[among-the-waves.livejournal.com]

i guess it depends on what type of work you'll be doing. if you like geeky math/stat stuff, you'll enjoy SAS more.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

It's probably going to depend on what I can do with either language. I'm geeked out about pattern matching, structure modeling, and using these in silico tools to predict what biologicals are actually doing in vivo. That kinda turns my crank.