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by mlang23 1853 days ago
The latest language which fits quote 1 for me was Haskell. Even though I already had some functional background (Lisp), it took me seemingly forever to actually grok purely functional programming. But once it clicked, it felt like stepping up on a ladder. My perspective on other languages changed as well.
3 comments
geocar 1852 days ago
I have a common-lisp background, and I learned Haskell at the insistence of a former colleague. I also know k, and have since learned some APL and j. I would like to try and suggest to you my perspective:

The jump from Python to Haskell - or really anything along that way is like talking about a ladder of computing. You start at one end, and you are climbing upwards. And every step you take, you can look down and see all of the things you knew before, but with greater perspective.

And Haskell? Well, it's definitely pretty far up the ladder. If you get Haskell, you feel like you really understand what's going on. I know pg was talking about lisp when he was thinking blub, but in some blubish respects, Haskell is a better lisp than lisp.

But see, going from Haskell (or really anything) to Iverson is like, listen: Forget the ladder, because a ladder only goes up and down. Iverson is sideways. It is in this way, like adding depth to flatland, that Arrays are an even bigger deal than you can possibly imagine until you go there.

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an1sotropy 1853 days ago
For me it was Prolog. I came to a class, which used Prolog, with a bad attitude of "whatever I can think of, I can program in C". Luckily for me I was schooled.
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mamcx 1852 days ago
For my was Rust. I done like 12(?) Langs before, including F# that also was a change of mind, but the first 2 or 3 months of Rust I fell like an idiot looking intensely to a wall. I start to think my 20 years programming were a big fat lie.

I can't believe why it feels so hard? !I already know pascal and obj-c and F#!, kind of similar, no?

Now I feel rust so easy (as python easy!) that is weeeeeeird. (btw: I think is months now where I never think I have meet an error or situation that truly confuse me).

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