"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so I invented it"

Re:"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so... by douglasisshiny on Thursday January 24, 2013 @10:04AM (#5109848)

I'm just (re)learning to code after doing a bit in college (c/c++), currently learning Ruby (and Rails). As a regular reader of HN, I see posts about how great Erlang is, Scala, Haskell, Python, etc. And they do seem to be great languages. And I want to learn them. But as the author points out (and as I have come to realize), regardless of my desire to learn all these things (right now!), it would almost seem fruitless to quit on Ruby/Rails after about 6 months.

The large point is, regarding langugage/framework bashing, people put in so much time into a particular language. You almost have to buy into it. I guess some people just become zealots.

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Re:"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so... by Joeri on Thursday January 24, 2013 @12:54PM (#5110957)

The advantage of programming long enough is that your 'primary' language changes several times, and each time you get less zealoty about it.

Having learned a bunch of languages myself i would recommend beginners to learn a language thoroughly before moving on. Otherwise you don't assimilate the style of a language and end up writing fortran in c, or c in c++. The qualitative differences between languages don't become obvious until you understand why their common style is what it is.

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Re:"I couldn't really learn Erlang, 'cos it didn't exist, so... by douglasisshiny on Thursday January 24, 2013 @01:03PM (#5111023)

Makes sense.

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