Knowing the syntax and knowing how to use a language are two very different things. If you're a newbie you can learn the C syntax in a couple of weeks, but you would be very wrong to assume that you know e.g. "70%" of C, and that you could read any C project and understand it well.
On 10/19/10, bearophile <bearophileh...@lycos.com> wrote: > Rainer Deyke: > >> That depends on the language, I think. C++ takes years to learn. >> Python took me one month to reach full fluency. There may still be >> obscure corners of Python that I haven't explored, but they so obscure >> that I'm unlikely to ever encounter them in normal programming. They >> don't matter. >> >> Learning the associated libraries is another matter, but also largely >> unnecessary in my opinion. I just program with a reference manual in my >> web browser. > > This is correct. After a month there are parts of Python that you probably > ignore (details about destructor semantics of __del__, metaclasses, how to > implement a decorator correctly, and so on an on) but you are able to write > acceptable Python code, you probably know more than 60/70% of core Python > language. To learn 60% of D2 you probably need quite more than a month. > (Still, what has said Walter is generally correct. Programmers try to > protect the investment of time and brain energy they have giving to a > language). > > Bye, > bearophile >
