Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming wrote: > Subject: Top 7 Programming Languages That Employers Really Want > > This is just a quick survey. May I know what programming languages do > you know? I am considering being a programmer or developer. > How long will it take for me to master a programming language like > C++, Java, and Python?
Nobody knows. The art of programming is in two parts. The first part is to be able to think extremely clearly and rationally about a complex system -- not the computer, usually, but the problem that you are trying to solve. The second part is writing down those thoughts in an artificial, highly constrained formal language. Most experienced programmers know two or three computer languages very well, and one or two others just enough to figure out what a program is doing. Python is generally considered a good language to start learning the ideas of programming, and is also widely used for a variety of tasks. I think "Learn Python The Hard Way" is an excellent introductory book. It will take a dedicated student at least two months to get through it, or about a year if you work on it one day a week or so. Once you know one programming language, you will find it much easier to learn new ones in the same family of languages, and also easier to learn unrelated languages. For example, once you understand the concept of a typed variable, you won't have to relearn that -- just what the types available in a given language are. I work in shell, Perl, Python, Ruby; I use some special purpose languages like SQL, and specialized configuration languages like Cisco IOS and Juniper's JunOS. I have used any number of languages in the past that I don't encounter much, like LISP, FORTRAN and Prolog. I don't consider myself a programmer. I'm a senior general-purpose systems administrator with network engineering, security and people-management specialties. -dsr- -dsr-
