In my experience, the "horizon widening" was big enough to pay off for every second I spent learning new languages.
If I had more time, I would, definitely, play with a lot more... On 27 April 2010 17:53, Wildam Martin <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 15:50, Jan Goyvaerts <[email protected]> > 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 [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<javaposse%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
