On Mon, 2007-02-12 at 11:22 -0500, Grant Shipley wrote: > > Even for a position in language X though, I'd rather hire/work with> > > someone who's demonstrated the initiative to broaden his horizons by > > learning something else as well. No matter what X is. > > This all started because I am reluctant to learn Ruby on Rails to help > on a open source project with some hard core Java guys at work. I > more or less argued Bryan's points and they referred me to this book.
Volunteering to work on a project is one thing, or doing something for fun. Doing it professionally is quite another. I don't blame you for not wanting to learn Ruby on Rails. It's likely not worth the cost of your free time. Doesn't mean that Ruby and Ruby on Rails isn't a worthwhile thing generally. Maybe in the future you might feel differently. But that says nothing about whether or not knowing additional languages is a good or bad thing. > > In my opinion is takes a very long time to master a language. Sure, > anyone can pick up a language and start coding in a week or two but to > really feel like you know the ins and outs takes a long time. I > argued that Java pays very well and there are things about my current > language of choice that I could improve on. I agree it does take time. However, I still have it as my goal to learn a new programming language every year and do at least one personal project in it. Programming languages shouldn't take long at all to pick up, but learning how to fully utilize the class libraries and programming paradigms does. This is one of the major reasons I've avoided Java for so long. The plethora of class libraries and frameworks is mind boggling. Take for example, Sprint, Hibernate, etc. Very steep learning curves for the uninitiated. Learning Ruby is one thing, Rails is quite another. Note that I haven't done well on my goal. So far I've only picked up Python in the last two years. But I have found python happens to fit my current professional needs for the moment, so it was a good thing. > > That being said, I also argued that PHP is the next best language to > learn for $$$ because 95% of the contract work I see is written in > PHP. > > -- > grant > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
