It sounds crazy, but: Learn C++. I've been working in the space for most of a decade and my comfort in a high-performance language has been absolutely critical. At the same time learn shell really well, so that you can do rapid prototyping and interactive work. The basic idea is to write small bits that do one thing right, then combine them into general data flow descriptions using shell or other systems.
It sounds crazy, but: Learn C++. I've been working in the space for most of a decade and my comfort in a high-performance language has been absolutely critical. At the same time learn shell really well, so that you can do rapid prototyping and interactive work. The basic idea is to write small bits that do one thing right, then combine them into general data flow descriptions using shell or other systems.