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> I remember being laughed at when I told more experienced colleagues in 2004 that the only programming language I knew was JavaScript. I wasn’t a “real” progra
by alextgordon 11y ago
> I remember being laughed at when I told more experienced colleagues in 2004 that the only programming language I knew was JavaScript. I wasn’t a “real” programmer yet, according to them, because I hadn’t learned how to write assembly code.
And they'd be right. You're not a real programmer until you understand how the machine functions. This is usually achieved by learning a low-level language like C, Pascal, Fortran, etc. Although I guess you could read a book on computer architecture instead.
Elitism is not the same as having basic standards. I wouldn't trust a doctor who didn't know where my elbow is, and I wouldn't trust a programmer who doesn't know what malloc() is.
- HillRat 11y agoI would, in fact, argue that computer science is in fact deeply anti-elitist; there are no formal barriers to entry, the discipline has no hidden knowledge, there are no licensing and accreditation requirements. Difficult is not the same as elitist, and it's an abuse of the language to conflate the two. As a rejoinder to the author, I would say that one can be a programmer and only know JavaScript, but one should not be a programmer and wish to only know JavaScript. Go ye forth and read some Wirth!