On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 15:50, Jan Goyvaerts <java.arti...@gmail.com> wrote: > Just asking whether somebody in here already read this > ebook: http://pragprog.com/titles/btlang/seven-languages-in-seven-weeks. And > of course, if so, what your opinion is. :-)
I did not read the book and I am not going to. Already the phrase "You should learn a programming language every year" is complete bullshit - IMHO. The only positive thing I can read (between the not-existing lines here) is something like "you should look at other new stuff to widen your horizon". But: It takes about a year until you get really productive in a new language (and well, this does not only apply to _programming_ languages). I have learned and used enough different programming languages to know this. So this sentence basically means, that you will never ever get _really_ productive. For instance, I am faster writing some simple DB-application in VB than in MS Access. I have done VB for more than 10 years and I have a lot of functions and modules in my toolbox. In the meantime I also have a decent toolbox for Java, but this does not reach that what I have for VB. Although I have a lot of common module stuff I am planning still to write, when you now ask me to implement a new project in Ruby or Scala or whatever, I would still be much faster in Java, even if it is maybe not the best solution for the particular use case. My saying is: If you use a serious language, you are way better using what you already know and you are efficient in than using something new (just for the sake of using something new). And particular language features have far less impact on efficiency than the libraries and tools and your familiarity with those. I decided for myself to wisely choose a language that I can use in a wide field (for server, client as well as for web - so excluding domain specific languages in that decision) and then use that for the major work (so on a daily basis) for at least five years (really at least). Although in the early ninetees there were far less programming languages available I learned and switched more often during my education (well it was for eduction ;-) ). But as soon as I entered the market (still during my education time), I switched less times, which is quite obvious because nobody is willing to pay you for learning stuff. The contrary is true: The more efficient I am and the more already existing reusable modules I have, the faster I can be in development which means the project will be cheaper for the customer. Of course, there are exceptions of this when it comes to particular needs. My experience is that these exceptions are more given by interoperability issues rather than particular core language features. For example: I often have to deal with 3rd party applications. If one does only offer COM-APIs, doing my stuff in Java may not be an efficient choice (and the platform independent question is either obsolete in such a case). For an OS or driver programmer for instance the situation will be more extreme - just C(++) and Assembler. -- Martin Wildam -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
