Comments on: A Language a Year

By: Luis

Luis — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:58:28 +0000

Learning different languages is like when you learn to play an instrument, as much types of music you listen as much resources you'll have to play what you really like!

My approach is PHP OO really kick-ass, (something I already should know).

PS: I like to identify with your ideas, is nice ;)

By: phalacee

phalacee — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:17:44 +0000

I certainly agree with you about needing to add languages to your toolkit. As a developer and designer, I find that new languages are essential. I would have to say though that limiting yourself to one language a year may be a little dangerous, considering the state the industry is in at the moment.

I've chosen to start learning at least one language every 3 months or so - once you learn something like php or Java, picking up most of the other OOPL's becomes very easy.

In the past 12 months I have picked up Ruby/Rails, JSP - to the point where I can build complex web apps in both. I've also started learning to use Flex, although I mastered actionscript early last year.

In terms of desktop development, I toyed with Ook! and a few other compiled languages.

I've also started learning to use some of the larger AJAX frameworks (YUI, Dojo, and jQuery) and PHP rapid development frameworks (CakePHP and QCodo mostly).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 01:13:56 +0000

I think it’s hard to take away from the already limited time to learn something new, especially if something you already know you like hasn’t received the attention you’d like it to. I develop in Ruby on Rails and don’t know it to the extent that I’d like to. I’d also like to learn Django, just to see how “the other” popular web framework does things. Plus, I might learn how to do the Ruby/Rails stuff better.

Anyway, it’s hard to pry myself away from Rails to learn something new, but I’d like to at times.

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:42:29 +0000

Well, it’s my gap year now, so i’m going to learn …. PHP (fully) and get some feel to how Ruby on Rails works. Ill being ASP and C, C# at Uni anyway, so in a few years I’ll have a pretty flexible catalogue.

Oh, and Japanese. Kawaii!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:01:48 +0000

I’ve been working my way through Flex 2: Training from the source and I like it. It teaches you flex through building an example application. It stresses a couple times that it’s not here to teach you Object-Oriented programming though, so if you’re not that comfortable with some basic OO concepts, I’d suggest digging your way through that first.

By: Geof Harries

Geof Harries — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:53:36 +0000

Kyle, what Flex book do you recommend picking up?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:56:27 +0000

Nathan: You may have caught me a bit there ;) But, to be fair… I still don’t buy books unless they’re tutorial-based (i.e. you do something with them). Just reading “theory” gets way boring to me.

By: Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:16:52 +0000

@Kyle: Good to see you’ve changed your opinion of books, compared to what you said a year ago.

“Cal Poly’s motto is ‘Learn by doing’ — and that’s where I excel. Give me a book to read and I’ll throw it on the ground. Give me a project to build and I’ll hack away until the sun comes up.”

By: Geof Harries

Geof Harries — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:04:35 +0000

I started out with HTML, then ColdFusion, moved to PHP, back to ColdFusion and now, oddly, am focused on HTML and JS again.

As a front-end designer, I know my next focus needs to be on Flex and AS3, but lack of time...oh lack of time, how you mock me.

By: Veracon

Veracon — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:11:47 +0000

Learn Python! Yay!
(But really, it’s a great language.)

At the moment I’m learning Latin, but after that I’ll probably try a bit more Io (http://www.iolanguage.com/), which I’ve found is a great way to truly learn object-orientation.