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>> The learning curve is minimal since you already know the corners of the language. > Learning a new language shouldn't be difficult. Programmers are expected
by tivert 3y ago
>> The learning curve is minimal since you already know the corners of the language.
> Learning a new language shouldn't be difficult. Programmers are expected to familiarize themselves with new tech.
But in practice, it is. Maybe you're on a team of elite 10x programmers that can quickly become experts in anything, but that's rare. A lot of programmers don't want to bother coming up to speed with the quirky choice of some past developer. And a lot of places have programmers that aren't even that good with the "project main language," and just lack lack the ability become productive in that quirky choice in a reasonable amount of time.
Defensive coding against organizational problems is not a bad thing.
- remus 3y ago> But in practice, it is. Indeed. There's also 'learning' and learning: really knowing all the nooks and crannies of a language, learning the standard library and learning popular third party libraries all takes time and makes a big difference to code quality.
- steve_gh 3y agoDepends on the language. I am competent in half a dozen languages, and write a lot of functional code. I have written a few projects in Haskell, but I freely admit theat when I read any of Simon Peyton-Jones papers (eg the one on build systems referenced on HN recently) I am in awe of the way he can map concepts into Haskell code.
- lelanthran 3y ago> But in practice, it is. Maybe you're on a team of elite 10x programmers that can quickly become experts in anything, but that's rare. Pray that you aren't, because that is a recipe for misery.