> Somewhat. You can't become an expert in a matter of months, but by the same token, my PHP and Java skills didn't get demonstrably better between years 8 and years 9 of experience.

> Figuring out which new tools (or language features, perhaps) will bring the most value to you and your projects is as much as a skill as learning the language itself

Exactly in my view, programming language such as PHP and Java isn't tool, they are a set of tools. However the toolset are different between each programming language, let's say that in PHP the hammer has larger head than Java.

Let's say that programming features such as iteration (for / while loop) and conditional expression (if) are tools, that can be used to solve specific problems.

Well sorry if the analogy or metaphor isn't really accurate...