On Mon, 12 Jul 1999, you wrote:
> Java and Javascript are both so similar in syntax and structure to C++
> that it is quite easy to come up to speed in either one if you know the
> other. This, however, may not be the same moving from Java/Javascript
> to C++ as the richness and lack of protection of C++ requires a bit more
> study.
if (knowing_syntax == knowing_language)
{
well("I'll be a monkey's uncle");
}
So... what language was that? Do I know C, C++, Java, and JavaScript? Yup.
Does the above prove it? Nope. Knowing other things like:
C - printf("This prints a line.\n");
C++ - cout << "This prints a line.\n";
Java - System.out.println("This prints a line.");
JavaScript - document.writeln("This prints a line.");
gives the claim some credence though. Syntax is at most 10% of the story.
(The Smalltalk syntax, as the most extreme example I know of, can be
written in about 1/2 a page, but learning to really use the system takes
quite a while.) Frankly, once you learn about two Pascal-like languages
you can pick of the syntax of any others pretty quickly. Learning the
libraries and such that really make up the language, however, and learning
efficiency tricks and such takes much more time. Even Java has some
seriously tricky aspects (threading and garbage collection among
them) although you don't need to know them %66-%75 of the time.
Think of it like this, it's the difference between knowing C syntax (which
I do) and knowing how to write a KDE application, complete with GUI
(which I don't).
(BTW, what does this have to do with Linux and/or Mandrake?)
~Mike
