[xquery-talk] Izzit Bcos I is functional?

[James Fuller]

It may seem like fashion, but using a programming language comes with a
significant investment before becoming useful in said language ... in that
respect I believe programming language adoption is similar to spoken
language in that one learns from their direct and closest community.

So initial exposure to programming whether it be at home, in academia or
work probably is the strongest determining factor for language adoption by
the individual. These choices maybe by fiat (teacher chooses to teach it,
work enforces it, etc) but lets agree that learning a programming language
is significantly harder then putting on any of these outfits.

http://www.portlandmercury.com/binary/b4c9/1294341258-men-in-belted-sweaters-3643-1294094830-4.jpg

So yes, if you are introduced to PHP, lisp, c, python at your first job
then its likely you will learn one of them before learning Objective C.

Learning a spoken/written language is also harder then what most people
imagine ... akin to learning a musical instrument. Learning is punctuated
by local minima of understanding ... a few weeks later breakthroughs are
made. I think whatever gets you through these plateau's is also a strong
adoption factor ... its easier to stop at every stage, especially if you
already know a useful language and can get 'work done'.

Adoption may look like fashion (especially with all the recycling going
on), but its a lot more complicated then that.

J



On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 11:57 AM, Michael Kay <mike at saxonica.com> wrote:

> >
> > The only answer is that programming is subject to fashions and trends
> beyond logical understanding. It's an unsatisfactory answer, but it's the
> only one.
> >
>
> Indeed, some of the most successful languages like Java and PHP succeeded
> in ways that their original designers never intended.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk at x-query.com
> http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
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