How long does it take you to learn a new programming language (on average)?

Re:How long does it take you to learn a new programming lang... by gyro_robo on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:43PM (#13843)

It depends on how similar it is to what you're already familiar with. Learning a new imperative language is different from learning your first functional language.

I learned Python so quickly, I used to stare at the 2 lines I'd just written that did the same work as 20 in C++. My brain had to play catch-up since it was used to autopiloting while filling in the tedium.

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Re:How long does it take you to learn a new programming lang... by albertcardona on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:57PM (#13855)

So true (about Python vs. C). Same with java: I spend a lot of the time filling in straw. Python makes me think because almost every line is actually meaningful.

As for how long with a new language: speaking without quantitative data, I'd say differences in motivation are much larger than differences in languages, for languages with a reasonable set of libraries (i.e. brainfuck and the like excluded).

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