January 23, 2005

Learning

I identified with this comment from CD Baby's Derek Sivers on learning a new programming language (Ruby):

It took a lot to get me to switch from PHP, the only language I really know, to Ruby. I tell my non-computer friends, "It's like the week before sitting down to write a book, I decided to write it in Portuguese instead of English, because it'll be easier." It sounds crazy, but we'll see.

I've been playing in Ruby for a few weeks now. I'm coming at it from a bit broader perspective than Derek, I think, in that I know a few more languages (PHP, Python, ColdFusion, to name the ones I've spent the most time in). But, making the transition is rather painful. You spend a lot of time looking up syntax stuff, which can be frustrating. The good news is that I"m working within a powerful framework (Rails). Makes things much less painful.