[Novalug] Inventing new languages

Clif Flynt clif@cflynt.com
Fri Dec 26 16:52:46 EST 2008


On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 02:53:23PM -0500, Maxwell Spangler wrote:
> ...
> And lucky for you, its easier to learn a language like Python if you *do
> not* have a strong background with something like Pascal.  The two
> represent two different styles going in two directions.  Master one and
> it makes the other hard to conceptualize.
> 

  My observation when I went from FORTRAN to APL to BASIC was that
the first language you learn is just plain weird and incomprehensible.
The second language is wrong and nothing behaves the way it should.

  After that, all languages are like the others.
  
  The syntax varies a bit, but they all have a conditional thing, a
loop thing, and a subroutine thing.  Some emphasize the stack, or
variables, some only work for functional or declarative programming,
but they all start to look the same.

  Knowing that doesn't make the second (or maybe third) language
any easier, but at least you know what's coming when you learn the 
5'th or 12'th.

  Clif

-- 
... Clif Flynt ... http://www.cwflynt.com ... clif@cflynt.com ...
.. Tcl/Tk: A Developer's Guide (2nd edition) - Morgan Kauffman ..
.... 16'th Annual Tcl/Tk Conference:  2009,  West Coast, USA ....
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