Re: Programming skills required by mathematicians?

> My post mentioned C++, Java, Fortran, OCaml, SML,
> Haskell, Prolog, Mercury, SQL, Erlang, Ruby, Python, and Perl.

Thanks Marshall. I checked on the programs you mentioned here and some
of them seem really awesome. But, I don't know a morsel about them
(except for SQL, which according to my current knowledge of its
basics, seems nothing more than a database storage software). I
especially found SML, Prolog, Mercury and logic programs really
fascinating to learn.

How does one go about learning these programs without enrolling for
formal courses offered by universities? Just by reading introductory
books and practicing them? Are there any other ways?