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The response by jan makes a point that I think should be more widely appreciated: >> Learning any language in enough depth will take time away from learning so
by chalst 5y ago
The response by jan makes a point that I think should be more widely appreciated:
>> Learning any language in enough depth will take time away from learning something else. So you need to figure out your priorities first.
> I doubt that will hold. In my understanding (but I might be wrong) this has been disproved for natural languages, i.e., (most) children learning more natural languages do not perform worse on their mother tongue except for a brief period were they tend to mix languages.
> Likewise, learning Prolog provides you with a different perspective on programming that, once understood, can be applied to other languages as well. For example, I tend to put a lot of “knowledge” in data structures and use a small program using this data to do the job rather than using endless if-then-else, also when programming in C or JavaScript (my main imperative languages).
I'm reminded of Richard O'Keefe's comment, in the context about a decision about which PLs to teach in 1992, "Rob Hagan at Monash had shown that you could teach students more COBOL with one semester of Scheme and one semester of COBOL than you could with three semesters of COBOL."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337973
- khaled_ismaeel 5y agoThat quote is spot on. My university is currently experimenting with a course called "programming paradigms" which focuses on functional and logic programming and comparing them to mainstream paradigms (procedural, object-oriented). I think it's a great idea to have such a course on first year.
- retrac 5y ago> In my understanding (but I might be wrong) this has been disproved for natural languages, i.e., (most) children learning more natural languages do not perform worse on their mother tongue except for a brief period were they tend to mix languages. More than that, for each related language you learn, the nth additional is easier. After French, Italian and Spanish, you will be able to read Portuguese almost fluently, without any specific study. People like that who write/speak often do mix things up, admittedly. But it tends to go away with regular exposure. To carry forward the metaphor, I'd argue most if not all computer languages are closely related in the same way Spanish and French are.
- schwartzworld 5y agoI can't find it but I remember reading an interview with Phil proctor from the firesign theater. After firesign, he went on to do a lot of voiceover work and specialized in languages and accents. He said that for him once he had a few languages under his belt, the other ones all came very easily, even the ones with really distinct lineages, not just the romance languages. I kept this in mind as I've continued my education in computer programming, and it's true. Once you get familiar with three or four different languages, even the weird ones come a lot easier.