Why do beginning programmers (like me) always ask about the next language they should learn instead of asking about the next project to tackle?Why did Eric Raymond, in the Learn How To Program section of his How To Become A Hacker essay, talk about the order in which you should learn languages (vs. the order in which you should tackle projects).Do beginning carpenters ask I know how to use a hammer ... should I learn how to use a saw or a level next?I ask because I'm finding that almost any meaningful project I'm interested in tackling (e.g. a web app, a set of poker analysis tools) requires that I learn just enough of a multitude of languages (Python, C, HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL) and frameworks/libraries (wxPython, tkinter, Django) to implement them.Thanks,Mike
Why is it always what language should I learn next instead of what project should I tackle next?
learning;junior programmer
I think that when most people set out to learn a language, they do so because they want to tackle a project written in that language, either now or in the future. To do so, they must learn that language, which takes time. Programming languages are like tools, but whereas you can learn to use a hammer in about sixty seconds, languages take a bit longer to learn to use; thus many people focus on learning a language before they focus on working on a project written in that language.On another note, I think when most people ask what language to learn next, they really are thinking of what project to learn next, but they focus on learning the language first.Finally, learning languages can be fun, even though you don't have a specific project or goal in mind.