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Ask HN: What cool development languages/tools changed your career?

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Re: Ask HN: What cool development languages/tools changed your career?

#13

Post by cagataygurturk »

My wow moment was when I quit trying to do everything in the language I was comfortable with (PHP) and became a language agnostic engineer. Since then (2 years ago) now I can write in 3 programming language, nobody can realize that I am new at these languages and I know that I can pick a new language up now in a very short time. I had to study so much in these last 2 years but since I love engineering it was funny rather than tiring. You do what you like and they pay for it, that is perfect. Before I used to search for PHP jobs and end up in low quality companies. After forgetting about languages, removing my limitations and focusing in engineering more than stack, my career significantly improved. Actually I got a tech management job in a big American company that I'd never imagine before.

Re: Ask HN: What cool development languages/tools changed your career?

#14

Post by dragonquest »

Learning Lisp, more specifically Scheme. I became curious about it after reading ESR's "How to Become a Hacker". When homoiconicity and other Lisp goodies gradually permeated my brain, the computing world seemed different.

I saw every config file differently, trying to see how the lines between config and code blurred. Method abstractions and bottom up design became much easier. I appreciated all those prefix-evaluation assignments in college. I found a new respect for languages with good REPL's. And finally, it opened my eyes to computing history, where I discovered newer is not always better. The elders of old really got many things right.

Re: Ask HN: What cool development languages/tools changed your career?

#19

Post by lmm »

Scala, back in 2010. I realised that I didn't have to sacrifice productivity for safety, I could have it all: code that's more concise than Python, but safer than Java. Best thing I ever did was finding a way to try it in my then job (a low-risk standalone tool); over the next couple of years I shifted gradually into doing more and more Scala, and now use it full-time.
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