Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #10369

Re: java developers

Date	2011-11-30 09:41 -0800
From	Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: java developers
References	<curixinfotech.540mfz@no-mx.forums.yourdomain.com.au> <jb593f$8mb$1@dont-email.me> <32752303.88.1322663566686.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prfx15>
Message-ID	<pN2dnbS8ncUj90vTnZ2dnUVZ_gydnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

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On 11/30/2011 6:32 AM, Lew wrote:
> Eric Sosman wrote:
>>       Questions very like yours are sometimes posed by people seeking
>> to enter the programming trade and wondering which language to build
>> a career on.  If that's your situation, then once again the question
>> makes little sense.  This is a fashion-driven industry in many ways,
>> where languages and frameworks and disciplines and paradigms rise and
>> fall like hem lines.  You may make a career as a programer, but you
>> will not make a career as a Java programmer or as a Python programmer
>> or as a COBOL programmer or as an AnySingleLanguage programmer.  Expect
>> to use many languages over time, some regularly and repeatedly, some
>> just a few times in special cases.  If you're the world's best Java
>> programmer but will not learn Guava or Canberra or Mastodon or
>> whatever the next fashion is, your career will be brief and boring.
>
> Not entirely true.  There are plenty of COBOL programmers out there who don't need much of a second language.  There are AnySingleLanguage programmer career tracks that are long and boring.
>

I think a good strategy is to begin by learning a popular language that
shows up in a lot of job ads, and also learn at least one language that
is very different from it.

The point of learning a very different second language early is
insurance against needing to learn other languages later. Some people
who learn only one language initially build its assumptions so deeply
into their thinking that they cannot learn to program effectively in any
other language.

That is fine if they guess right, and the first language is going to
stay popular for another 50 years. It was a disaster, for example, for
some people who learned an assembly language in the 1960's and could not
shift to high level languages in the 1980's and 90's.

Patricia

Thread

java developers curixinfotech <curixinfotech.540mfz@no-mx.forums.yourdomain.com.au> - 2011-11-30 07:14 -0500
  Re: java developers Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-30 07:55 -0500
    Re: java developers Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-11-30 06:32 -0800
      Re: java developers Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-11-30 09:41 -0800
      Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-02 17:03 -0500
        Re: java developers Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-12-02 14:30 -0800
          Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-02 18:40 -0500
            Re: java developers Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-12-03 14:42 +0000
              Re: java developers Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-12-03 10:09 -0500
                Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-04 22:17 -0500
              Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-04 22:11 -0500
    Re: java developers curixinfotech <curixinfotech.54dibz@no-mx.forums.yourdomain.com.au> - 2011-12-07 05:56 -0500
  Re: java developers Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-12-02 01:48 -0800
  Re: java developers Rajiv Gupta <rajiv@invalid.com> - 2011-12-02 22:16 +1100
    Re: java developers David Segall <david@address.invalid> - 2011-12-02 23:17 +1100
      Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-02 16:29 -0500
        Re: java developers David Segall <david@address.invalid> - 2011-12-03 15:15 +1100
    Re: java developers Henk van Voorthuijsen <voorth@xs4all.nl> - 2011-12-02 03:39 -0800
    Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-02 14:43 +0100
    Re: java developers Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-12-02 07:32 -0800
    Re: java developers Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> - 2011-12-02 18:18 +0100
      Re: java developers Rajiv Gupta <rajiv@invalid.com> - 2011-12-04 10:50 +1100
        Re: java developers Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-12-03 19:43 -0800
        Re: java developers Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-12-04 10:56 +0000
        Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-05 11:00 +0100
          Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-05 22:38 -0500
            Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-06 10:33 +0100
          Re: java developers Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-06 21:17 +0000
            Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-07 15:09 +0100
  Re: java developers dsnitelex@gmail.com - 2011-12-02 21:51 -0800
    Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-03 10:51 +0100
      Re: java developers Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-12-03 11:41 -0400
      Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-04 22:28 -0500
        Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-05 10:31 +0100
          Re: java developers Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-05 22:35 -0500
            Re: java developers Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-12-06 10:25 +0100
        Re: java developers Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-06 21:10 +0000
    Re: java developers BGB <cr88192@gmail.com> - 2011-12-05 22:52 -0800
      Re: java developers Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-12-06 06:49 -0400

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