On 15/05/2013 19:42, Abigail wrote:
On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 12:06:33AM +0800, AJ Dhaliwal wrote:
Damian (and Dave cross) disagree with you on that one. A week with them
is worth more than a year's actual experience.
Doubtful.
There's a lot more to making a good programmer than knowing the language,
just like being a spelling bee doesn't make you a good novelist.
When I'm looking for a good Perl programmer, whether the candidate knows
Perl or not doesn't matter much (of course, if the candidate claims to
know Perl, (s)he better shows (s)he knows the language); for a good
programmer, learning a new language should not be a problem.
Learning a new language shouldn't be, but becoming productive in it is.
Being productive isn't much about the language. It's the quirks of the
toolchain, learning where to get third party libraries, what The One
True Solution is to common problems and how to be productive with those
One True libraries, knowing where to ask for help and who to trust
(don't ask london.pm, for they will answer "yes", "no", and "buffy"),
and so on.
I'm sure I could pick up python or ruby or javascript or whatever is
fashionable in a week, but becoming *productive* in them would take
months of constant use, and probably years of constant use to become as
productive in them as I am in perl.
Which is why I have put little effort into learning them. It's so
offputting to have a simple problem, which I know I could solve with
twenty or thirty lines of perl in five minutes, and find that because I
don't know the tools I get frustrated and give up after half an hour in
python.
--
David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice
More people are driven insane through religious hysteria than
by drinking alcohol. -- W C Fields
