language choices

Post #29,665 by bconnors 2/25/02 5:38:41 PM Reply	language choices Quote: why programmers should consider languages outside of the C / C++ / VB / Java / C# universe. What's left for people like me to learn so we can get our resumes past the HR pinheads and into the laps of PHBs? Learning an esoteric language might be fun, but I have to be a fluent programmer in whatever will put bread onto my dinner table at night. BConnors "Prepare for metamorphosis. Ready, Kafka?"
Post #29,674 by tonytib 2/25/02 6:21:06 PM Reply	It can make you a better programmer by opening your mind to different ways of approaching problems. Many of the scripting languages interact very well with the 'standard' languages like C / C++ and with Win32 / MS stuff (at least, Python has pretty good COM and Win32 support). So another reason is some languages let you do stuff with the 'standard' languages that would very time consuming to do otherwise. So far I'm enjoying using Python; it can do some really neat things compared to C++. I think it's a more productive language than C++, but the big reason I'm using it (with VB and C++ COM components) is that I can take advantage of its scripting to build in easy customization. C++ is not a good solution for this. Tony
Post #29,872 by bconnors 2/26/02 4:08:10 PM Reply	How to avoid the "Catch-22"? You know, "Can't get a job without such-and-such language(s) in your background, and you don't have them in your background because your current employer doesn't use such-and-such language(s)" BConnors "Prepare for metamorphosis. Ready, Kafka?"
Post #30,328 by tseliot 3/1/02 12:16:03 PM Reply	Not to move this into the Job forum, but Don't sell yourself as a cog. YAN nameless, faceless resource for your employer to use, abuse, and throw away. Interview by telling them how you're going to make them money. --------------------------------- A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas;...despair and time eat away the bonds of iron and steel, but they are powerless against the habitual union of ideas, they can only tighten it still more; and on the soft fibres of the brain is founded the unshakable base of the soundest of Empires." Jacques Servan, 1767

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