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> To be fair, learning a new language is a joke. It doesn't require a substantial investment of time. I suspect Peter Norvig would disagree with you there -- h
by cabalamat 12y ago
> To be fair, learning a new language is a joke. It doesn't require a substantial investment of time.
I suspect Peter Norvig would disagree with you there -- http://norvig.com/21-days.html http://norvig.com/21-days.html
> You're most likely going to be gluing API calls together and that's where you'll spend 80% of your time
For certain problems this is the case, and you can get away with writing Python/Ruby/etc in Swift syntax.
For other problems it isn't the case. Choice of language does matter; if it didn't, would Apple have invented Swift in the first place?
- nknighthb 12y agoLearning to program is not the same as learning a new language. Norvig is talking about something utterly different that has no relevance here. It's even hinted at in his own words -- "Learn at least a half dozen programming languages.".
- cabalamat 12y ago> Learning to program is not the same as learning a new language. Norvig is talking about something utterly different that has no relevance here. At least in parts of his essay, Norvig is talking about learning a new language when one already knows how to program. For example, where he says: In 3 days you might be able to learn some of the syntax of C++ (if you already know another language), but you couldn't learn much about how to use the language. In short, if you were, say, a Basic programmer, you could learn to write programs in the style of Basic using C++ syntax, but you couldn't learn what C++ is actually good (and bad) for.