Re: learning languages [Was: Re: Y Store now C++]

[Seth Gordon <address@hidden>]

On Fri, 2003-03-14 at 15:07, Adam Turoff wrote:
> ...One job I had in school was
> working on a system running on Primos written in a mixture of
> FORTRAN IV, Fortran 77, Pick, DCL and I forget what else.  That
> company hired entry-level programmers (still in school) with the
> expectation that a good programmer can learn a new language in few
> days/weeks....
> 
> Today, the IT world has standardized on two primary platforms:
> Windows and *NIX.  That has reduced the pressure to learn new
> langauges pick up new skills, and increased the cost for average 
> programmers to design/learn/build their n+1st language.

Also, among the IT shops that *are* using non-standard languages, how
many of them are hiring programmers and expecting them to learn the
language on the job?  I see there are job opportunities out there for
Common Lisp gurus who know how to take advantage of the full power of
the language, but what's there for Common Lisp newbies who are about as
unproductive in Lisp as in Java or Perl?

-- 
"The memory management on the power pc chip is something that should be
 shown to small children when they've been especially bad." --Linus
Torvalds
// seth gordon // sethg@ropine.com // http://ropine.com/sethg/cv.html //