3 ms·

Even more important than different languages is to learn about different execution models. For instance, the difference between Java and C++ is relatively mino

Even more important than different languages is to learn about different execution models. For instance, the difference between Java and C++ is relatively minor from that perspective, compared to (e.g.) understanding how Prolog works. That will open entirely new horizons if your previous experience was based on C(++)/Java(Script)/Python (just to mention a few of the usual suspects). Just look at how the addition of FP features to “OOP” languages considerably widened the field of possibilities.

CraigJPerry 5y ago
Yeah i agree, I was a bit clumsy about it but this is really what i was digging at in my examples. I see a lot of conversation on here dedicated to whether you’d like your data with your functions (objects) or your functions with your data (closures). Rarely see array, logic or constraint programming paradigms mentioned. FP has been rediscovered again and it’s the hotness right now but it’ll die out again like it did before OO stole its lunch, i can almost write the blog post headlines just now “arity considered harmful”, “OO and side-effect management not mutually exclusive after all!” I’ve got a fiver on the next big one being a re-visit of structured programming.
- morelisp 5y ago
  > a re-visit of structured programming. God I hope so, probably the worst time I have teaching junior developers is helping those who have only used for-each write a loop with a useful invariant and not a garbage fire of breaks/continues.
vidarh 5y ago
Learning (very basic) Prolog indirectly caused me to learn to write parsers, AST transformations and symbolic derivation - I picked up a book on Prolog and was mystified by how simple the examples of symbolic derivation were in Prolog, a subject I was struggling with. So I sat down and figured out how to do an expression parser just so I could write a solver that mimicked how Prolog did it to understand how it worked. And in the process I learned a lot more. It was transformational in a way my maths teacher was not...

CraigJPerry 5y ago

Yeah i agree, I was a bit clumsy about it but this is really what i was digging at in my examples. I see a lot of conversation on here dedicated to whether you’d like your data with your functions (objects) or your functions with your data (closures). Rarely see array, logic or constraint programming paradigms mentioned. FP has been rediscovered again and it’s the hotness right now but it’ll die out again like it did before OO stole its lunch, i can almost write the blog post headlines just now “arity considered harmful”, “OO and side-effect management not mutually exclusive after all!” I’ve got a fiver on the next big one being a re-visit of structured programming.

morelisp 5y ago
> a re-visit of structured programming. God I hope so, probably the worst time I have teaching junior developers is helping those who have only used for-each write a loop with a useful invariant and not a garbage fire of breaks/continues.

vidarh 5y ago

Learning (very basic) Prolog indirectly caused me to learn to write parsers, AST transformations and symbolic derivation - I picked up a book on Prolog and was mystified by how simple the examples of symbolic derivation were in Prolog, a subject I was struggling with. So I sat down and figured out how to do an expression parser just so I could write a solver that mimicked how Prolog did it to understand how it worked. And in the process I learned a lot more. It was transformational in a way my maths teacher was not...