Path: csiph.com!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Novice Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Aspect questions? Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 01:52:19 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Your Company Lines: 61 Message-ID: References: <4f4a6b1d$0$290$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: aorhoX7wqL+zg222N4gRzA.user.speranza.aioe.org X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Xnews/5.04.25 X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 120301-1, 2012-03-01), Outbound message Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:12575 Martin Gregorie wrote in news:jiop4m$vv1$1@localhost.localdomain: > On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:24:11 -0800, Lew wrote: > >> >> I'm sure that it's useful to know several languages. >> > Its indirectly useful: keeps your mind flexible and maintains its > ability to learn. > > I think its useful to have experience that covers the range from > totally unstructured languages (assembler, BASIC) through the middle > ground (COBOL, Fortran) to block structured ones (Algol, Pascal, C and > curly bracket languages)) and OO, if only because it makes learning a > new language easier. > > Knowing a few scripted languages is also useful, though more in the > *NIX world, where you really need to know shell scripting, plus the > basics of awk and/or Perl. Familiarity with PHP and (maybe) Python is > also useful. I admit my prejudices show here: I really don't much like > Perl or Python. > > OTOH I do like 4GLs and report generators despite their often limiting > and (often) BASIC-like syntax because you can write useful programs so > fast and in so few lines. > >> Did I waste my time? >> > No. See above. > >> Could it be that learning multiple languages, and how the hardware >> works, and how to freaking build an application such that it actually >> runs for someone for a change, and all those other foundational, >> > A basic understanding of hardware and, by extension, a non-superficial > knowledge of at least one OS can be very helpful for trouble shooting. > > Related to this, if you use databases you need a fairly deep > understanding of SQL - deep enough to understand how the DBMS, the > schema and SQL queries interact and how to use this knowledge to sort > out performance problems for the DBMS(es) you use. All too many > relational database 'designers' and the programmers working for them > haven't the faintest clue about why a particular query has terrible > performance with the DBMS they're using and probably know nothing > about using its performance analysis tools or why a poorly designed > schema's performance can be OK with test data but crash through the > floor when faced with production data volumes. > >> I've been hired again and again and again for languages that I didn't >> know until I started the job. >> > I've lost count of the projects I've done on that basis and the > essential skills for the project that I've picked up on the job. > Another guy whose been hired for jobs where he didn't have the core skill! How did YOU manage that, Martin? I've already asked Lew.... -- Novice