2 ms·

I think you hit the nail on the head. For a beginner learning about a language is so much more important than the compiler, and there's only so many things you

I think you hit the nail on the head. For a beginner learning about a language is so much more important than the compiler, and there's only so many things you can pay attention to at a time. When you're starting it's very important to only learn the minimal subset needed. Later you can expand if you need it, but I have been programming for close to 2 decades and I can count on one hand how many times I had to call a compiler directly. I didn't code much Java though, so maybe there it's different?

astrobe_ 5y ago
I have been programming for 3 decades, the 2 last as a dayjob. It seems to me that there is a deep cultural chasm around the new century. Before 1990 you had next to no Internet and computers were shipped with book-sized printed manuals that were trying to explain how the thing worked, not just how to operate it. After 2000 they begun to come with a single sheet showing how to plug them and www address for perverts who want to download manuals. However it's not entirely a matter of when you started to touch the keyboard. Around me I see "people who understand" and "people who use" of various ages. Guess who helps who more often.
- WithinReason 5y ago
  In my experience the people who are helping are the ones who use tools that lets them work more efficiently. They have more time to learn new things, while the ones who use less efficient tools use much of their mental effort on the tools themselves.
- simion314 5y ago
  The pint we are discussing is teaching in the first years, I agree that you don't want to hire a c++ programmer that does know what "linking" means or a Java developer that does not know what the classpath is, or a JS developer that does not know that he can leak memory too and you should manually cleanup sometimes in JS too.

2 ms·

I think you hit the nail on the head. For a beginner learning about a language is so much more important than the compiler, and there's only so many things you

by WithinReason 5y ago

astrobe_ 5y ago
I have been programming for 3 decades, the 2 last as a dayjob. It seems to me that there is a deep cultural chasm around the new century. Before 1990 you had next to no Internet and computers were shipped with book-sized printed manuals that were trying to explain how the thing worked, not just how to operate it. After 2000 they begun to come with a single sheet showing how to plug them and www address for perverts who want to download manuals. However it's not entirely a matter of when you started to touch the keyboard. Around me I see "people who understand" and "people who use" of various ages. Guess who helps who more often.
- WithinReason 5y ago
  In my experience the people who are helping are the ones who use tools that lets them work more efficiently. They have more time to learn new things, while the ones who use less efficient tools use much of their mental effort on the tools themselves.
- simion314 5y ago
  The pint we are discussing is teaching in the first years, I agree that you don't want to hire a c++ programmer that does know what "linking" means or a Java developer that does not know what the classpath is, or a JS developer that does not know that he can leak memory too and you should manually cleanup sometimes in JS too.