Picking a Language to Master
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Just as the topic suggests. How do you pick a language to master? I found it very easy to pick languages to try out and experiment with. I have experience writing at least 50 lines of code in over 15 languages. That being said, through all my experimenting and analysis, Ruby became my first choice for general purpose programming. I am not claiming that I am extremely knowledgable with Ruby but I find its clean syntax to be preferable for getting things done quickly and elegantly (just my opinion). Recently I began to wonder whether since Ruby is my favourite language, if I should take the time to really dig in and master it. Learn all of its intricacies, traps, and potential. But what if mastering Ruby is not a good career choice? Certainly time is limited, it takes a long time to master a language, and there are literally hundreds of languages that all seem to have particular niches, strengths, and weaknesses. So how to pick one to master? How do I pick a language to master? What if Ruby is a dying language? What if where I am living, there are no companies that are using Ruby as their programming language? What if Ruby is not [insert quality here] {fast, stable, secure, powerful, configurable} enough? What if I am constantly using another language to attempt to circumvent this? Should I be true the language I love, or should I force myself to master a language that will give me more fine control and/or more job opportunities?
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Just as the topic suggests. How do you pick a language to master? I found it very easy to pick languages to try out and experiment with. I have experience writing at least 50 lines of code in over 15 languages. That being said, through all my experimenting and analysis, Ruby became my first choice for general purpose programming. I am not claiming that I am extremely knowledgable with Ruby but I find its clean syntax to be preferable for getting things done quickly and elegantly (just my opinion). Recently I began to wonder whether since Ruby is my favourite language, if I should take the time to really dig in and master it. Learn all of its intricacies, traps, and potential. But what if mastering Ruby is not a good career choice? Certainly time is limited, it takes a long time to master a language, and there are literally hundreds of languages that all seem to have particular niches, strengths, and weaknesses. So how to pick one to master? How do I pick a language to master? What if Ruby is a dying language? What if where I am living, there are no companies that are using Ruby as their programming language? What if Ruby is not [insert quality here] {fast, stable, secure, powerful, configurable} enough? What if I am constantly using another language to attempt to circumvent this? Should I be true the language I love, or should I force myself to master a language that will give me more fine control and/or more job opportunities?
Sea_Sharp wrote:
not a good career choice
They are all good career choices, even if they become obsolete ten years from now.