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Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#71

Post by buugs »

tptacek wrote: post #55

None. I've got enough of them. What I need to get better at is maths, signal processing, and graphics. Chiming in to reject the idea that we should spend our careers churning through languages.

Not to say you are wrong, but if one has an interest in a new or different language they should not think they shouldn't because they already know enough.

Learning a new language can also be a supplement, say learning haskell in such a way that you improve your math ability and critical thinking at the same time. Or attempting to write a project in a new language would be far more interesting say if you are burned out from a job in a certain programming language. New and different things can be very refreshing!

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#72

Post by jimm »

mmphosis wrote: post #52

Scheme

I'm learning Scheme so I can program Impromptu (http://impromptu.moso.com.au/) to control my MIDI setup live. I'm having a hell of a time with macros and define-syntax; I have not yet found docs that explain those so I can understand them. I have played around with SBCL and Clojure, and can write macros in those languages. Don't know why I'm having problem with Scheme.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#74

Post by brl »

johngunderman wrote: post #5

Haskell. I'm working through http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Write_Yourself_a_Scheme_in_48_H... which is quite a good tutorial.

Even though I complained about not being able to learn Haskell in another comment, this is the tutorial that got me the furthest. I found RWH pretty much worthless by comparison.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#77

Post by jamesbritt »

joeycfan wrote: post #65
Shamiq wrote: post #8

Ruby

Me too - oop I understand - gotta get a grip on procs and lmbadas..... Best language I ever used and I was programming in Fortran iv on 80 column punch cards in 1972...

Cool. Be sure to ask lots of questions on the ruby-talk mailing list, and hopefully there's useful stuff on ruby-doc.org. (If not, let me know. :) )

Re: Ask HN: What programming language are you currently learning?

#79

Post by radu_floricica »

_cbsz wrote: post #49
radu_floricica wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to say it's hard. I'm definitely not the best programmer, truth be told I haven't even programmed full time for a while, but switching from java to clojure took me at least half a year. I'm in the middle of my first (small) full app though, and I can tell it will be worth it. With java there was a wall in productivity I simply could not brake. I wrote pieces of code sometimes as fast as I could type (simi…

I would not advise this style of programming, because it creates a very tight binding between the application logic and the interface. In fact, it's exactly the problematic style caused by GUI builders that generate event handlers and ask you to fill them in.

I think clojure's use of higher order functions is very well suited for this. With only a "#" in front the code becomes a lambda function. This pretty much makes the whole concept of handler functions void - or at least trivial.

But I'm not sure if it will work out in the end... and I mixed this with liberal use of metadata and thrown away SQL too... mostly I try to go as far as I can and see where I trip. It's fun.

And it does make for some terse code. This for example is the code for changing the person responsible for a brief:

    (html-select (cons {:id 0 :name "- No account -"} 
		       (filter #(:is-account %) @users))
      :selected (:account brief)
      :onchangefn #(do
		     (passoc briefs (:brief %) 
                             :account (Integer/parseInt (:value %)))
		     (return-from briefs (:brief %))
      :onchangeparams (str "&brief=" (:id brief)))
And this really is all of it. No html, no sql, nothing.
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