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Teaching someone a programming language (e.g. Scala) is not equivalent to teaching someone to program. If you take someone who has 5 years Ruby/Python/Java exp
by NickPollard 13y ago
Teaching someone a programming language (e.g. Scala) is not equivalent to teaching someone to program.
If you take someone who has 5 years Ruby/Python/Java experience, and then spend a month teaching them Scala, they don't miraculously forget everything they know about functions, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, interfaces, problem-solving, maths, etc.
I started my current job (at a Financial Institution where I write 99% Scala) with no Scala knowledge, but good programming fundamentals and experience with functional programming. A month later, I was a competent Scala programmer.
This isn't unique to Scala - if you have a language you like, which you think offers advantages over the competition, then it is worth training people to use it and then using it.
- markbao 13y agoThat makes sense. This is the kind of "carryover" effect that I talk about in the parent comment, so maybe I'm wrong in that there isn't a lot of carryover where in actuality there is. I just doubt that learning a new language automatically gets you up to anywhere near 50% competency as someone who has been using it for 5+ years (would you agree with that?), and the ability to hire people who can apply that full level of competency (i.e. how big the hiring pool is) is important in deciding what language to use.