Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lew Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Aspect questions? Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:28:44 -0800 Organization: albasani.net Lines: 60 Message-ID: References: <4f4a6b1d$0$290$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <4f5147b4$0$295$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: news.albasani.net NC4TuKcZWynJvnuxHshAp+fLGRdviQlSrjfyvpKVUWGdnPpeXEGnQH6wAoKBAXjXwB3RlC8+GYq65DjF/nx0lToUmfwAlRWpOvIIDcny2RyBKRS/Up0dPlIjbjbcxK3P NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 22:28:44 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: news.albasani.net; logging-data="f/vKgZmDWS+Oylw6N/Yi1tXnPq9D8J/G7uI/9XFe+XRLqaItJeGEBgspTPXGByOe0WXPYkIy6sD9m3yeP1W0oMzOR+95w0exGUrIC5OPwaUO1wKB9BBCR3zvJl0q3vOr"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@albasani.net" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120216 Thunderbird/10.0.2 In-Reply-To: <4f5147b4$0$295$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Cancel-Lock: sha1:PKomjrtuYQQdFkafXN73lglKd3U= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:12601 On 03/02/2012 02:20 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote: > On 3/1/2012 2:24 AM, Lew wrote: >> On 02/29/2012 05:44 PM, Novice wrote: >>> always fall back on COBOL in a pinch ;-) Some of the others, even if I >>> refreshed myself on them, would be of no use anywhere. I don't imagine >>> CSP is used anywhere any more. Or whatever 4GL Online Express was part >>> of. ;-) >> >> I learned SNOBOL once, at university. No practical use to it whatsoever. >> I learned Prolog for the Hell of it. Never made a dime from it. Studied >> a whole book on natural language processing with Prolog. Never got >> f**k-all for that professionally. Learned enough LISP to know that its >> fanboys are drug addicts. No one's ever offered to make that investment >> pay off, not directly. >> >> Did I waste my time? >> >> 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, >> below-the-surface-part-of-the-iceberg skills have indeed made me the >> supergenius amazing developer that I am? Could there be some gestalt >> effect that polyglot programming skills elicit? >> >> Inquiring minds want to know. > > Du you know the programming language MODEST? > > :-) > >> I've been hired again and again and again for languages that I didn't >> know until I started the job. >> >> How long does it take to learn a computer language? It took me about a >> week to learn Java. Less for Python, assuming you can say that I've >> learned it just because I can write effective programs in it. (I >> haven't, actually.) They gave me three class sessions in college to >> learn Pascal; I never showed up for the third session. Didn't need to. C >> I just picked up on the job because it looked interesting. > > http://norvig.com/21-days.html Excellent article. As I mentioned obliquely elsewhere, my (immodest?) claims were based on my own personal sense of when I've learned a language. Also on the understanding that learning doesn't end. I programmed that project successfully in 1999 where I had a week to actually learn Java, as opposed to a year of just looking at it. I continued to learn Java throughout that project, that year, and ever since. I don't count my knowledge as complete, perfect or really, even sufficient yet. At least, not sufficient to let up on the learning. A mentor taught me years ago to devote at least an additional 20% of time above mandated work to study of the craft. "If you aren't advancing your skills that aggressively," he told me, "you're falling behind." -- Lew Honi soit qui mal y pense. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg