Why is it difficult for developers to learn another programming language? [pdf]

Re:Why is it difficult for developers to learn another progr... by tiborsaas on Sunday May 03, 2020 @05:01AM (#23057836)

I used to teach programming with JS. It was not really a blocker for me at any level. When we hit some quirks I stopped to explain why this is and how it's different in other languages.

Maybe because I like JS made me enjoy teaching it as well :)

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Re:Why is it difficult for developers to learn another progr... by yomly on Sunday May 03, 2020 @06:11AM (#23058065)

I actually quite like JS, but I almost feel bad for people who discover it as their first foray into programming.

I mean it's great because it makes programming more accessible to non devs. But man is it unfortunate that JS was the language that ended up being the language of the web.

The browser is the ultimate interactive development environment. You can literally play with the page in situ. Akin to CAD and Excel (...or Emacs[0])

[0]https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.html

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Re:Why is it difficult for developers to learn another progr... by tiborsaas on Sunday May 03, 2020 @07:35AM (#23058399)

Don't feel bad, my first language I've ever written programs in was C-64 basic :)

I don't know what would have been a better choice, but JS is not bad for a browser language. It had a rough childhood, but turned out to be a decent adult.

I still remember VB Script supported in old IE, but then there was JS and I just focused on that. It really made no difference to me since I was able to build cool stuff I wanted to. That brought me joy of creation and that's what mattered, not "that's not OOP like god set in stone".

Whatever enables people to be more involved in programming, I consider it as a good thing.

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