> There comes a point in a programming career — at least one as peripatetic as mine — at which learning a new programming language barely registers as an obstacle
weeell, maybe. I'm relearning a language I haven't touched for years, and while I can apply the high-level stuff to it (I know what an object is, how to declare a class is almost universal, functional stuff is same but renamed, generics are fine) I keep tripping over the small stuff. So yes, "off you go", but rather slowly.
The author thinks that "picking up" a language is just learning the syntax and then goes on to prove that actually learning the language is all about knowing of these "quirks" they don't know how to deal with and thus whine that "it is so much better in X"
weeell, maybe. I'm relearning a language I haven't touched for years, and while I can apply the high-level stuff to it (I know what an object is, how to declare a class is almost universal, functional stuff is same but renamed, generics are fine) I keep tripping over the small stuff. So yes, "off you go", but rather slowly.