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The Pragmatic programmer

 
Greenhorn
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Hi Bruce,

I'm currently reading a quite old book, but also a quite interesting one, called The Pragmatic Programmer, by A Hunt and D. Thomas.
One of the tips of this book is you should try to regularly learn new languages. I tihnk they advice, for example to learn Eiffel if you already know Java.

Do you agreee with the idea that you should constantly try to learn new languages and for which reason ?

--Alexandre Delalieu

PS: I read quite a few books from you (Bitter Java, Better Faster Lighter Java and the Spring devlope's notebooks) and I really appreciate your to-the-point approach. Very good job.
 
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Alexandre Delalieu wrote:Do you agreee with the idea that you should constantly try to learn new languages and for which reason ?


New languages with different programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)
 
Rancher
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Alexandre Delalieu wrote:Do you agreee with the idea that you should constantly try to learn new languages and for which reason ?



Yes. Improve your understanding, your toolset, your choices.

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:
New languages with different programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)



Logic, imperative, structural, declarative as big ones; a few dozen smaller and overlapping ones.

While it doesn't hurt to learn any language, a completely different language (concept) to learn will give you more insight. E.g. learning another BASIC dialect when you know one typically will not tell you much new, only system specifics.
 
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Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:

Alexandre Delalieu wrote:Do you agreee with the idea that you should constantly try to learn new languages and for which reason ?


New languages with different programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)



That statement inspired this whole book!!!

This "old" book is one of the best programming books ever written. It indirectly launched the Pragmatic Bookshelf, the publisher for my book. I consider Dave and Andy good friends. Thanks for bringing them up, and I wholeheartedly agree with this advice.
 
Hauke Ingmar Schmidt
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Bruce Tate wrote:This "old" book is one of the best programming books ever written.



Quoted for agreement. Sorry for this otherwise unsubstantial post, but this can't be stressed often enough.
 
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Hauke Ingmar Schmidt wrote: . . .

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote: . . . programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)



Logic, imperative, structural, declarative as big ones . . .

The oldest, and one of the most widely used still, is probably procedural programming.
 
Hauke Ingmar Schmidt
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Hauke Ingmar Schmidt wrote: . . .

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote: . . . programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)



Logic, imperative, structural, declarative as big ones . . .

The oldest, and one of the most widely used still, is probably procedural programming.



Hm, I always thought of procedural and imperative programming as nearly synonymous.
 
Bruce Tate
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Hauke Ingmar Schmidt wrote: . . .

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote: . . . programing paradigm like Functional , OOP and so on. (Are there any more?)



Logic, imperative, structural, declarative as big ones . . .

The oldest, and one of the most widely used still, is probably procedural programming.



There are a bunch. There are a bunch of programming paradigms within logic programming. CLP (Constraint Logic programming) is the most popular. There are stack languages (Factor), prototype languages (JavaScript/Io, Lua, Self) that I distinguish from what we call OO because the mechanisms for inheritance and lifecycle are so different than what we usually see. There are tons of multi-paradigm languages that mix modes in interesting ways, like Lisp and Scala. There are also experimental languages that work more closely to the AST (Abstract Syntax Tree), such as the research that's gone on within JetBrains, and various kinds of visual programming paradigms. Assembler languages have their own programming paradigm, and other specialized languages like SQL have their own programming paradigms.

Still, we see a programming paradigm shift only once every twenty years or so. I find that absolutely fascinating. I think we're in the early stages of a shift to FP, but I could be wrong.
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