I want to write a program to format HTML code. The program will be able to compress the code as much as possible, while still maintaining readability. I also want to preserve whitespace inside <pre></pre> elements. I thought this might be a fun little project to do. Anyway, since I am a hobby programmer (aka a hack), I have only really gotten into C, Bash, and a bit of assembly. When I need to write a program, I usually default to C. This is terrible, I know - there are much better languages out there for certain things. For example, string handling and memory management in C++ is very nice in comparison to C, and I think string handling is even better in Python. Yet I have only dabbled in the latter two. Anyway, I want some opinions as to what I should do - should I make a stab at learning Python? C++ (again..), some other language, or should I just suck it up and do this in C? I am interested in hearing why you think I should use language x, as opposed to you just telling me to use language x. In other words, is this worth learning a new language, given that programming is a small 'h' hobby?
