How Managers Can Learn a New Programming Language

Every few years, a new programming language arrives on the scene that promises to be the answer to a maiden's prayer and superior to all languages that have gone before it. The first reaction, for those of us who have been around the barn a few times, is, "What, again?" We're jaded enough to believe that all these languages are more alike than they are different, and we are quick to dispense with the hype surrounding each new introduction.

On the other hand, hope springs eternal; maybe this time there is more gold than dross. Maybe someone has invented a better "do" loop. The point is that simply dismissing the new candidate out of hand is not an option for those of us seeking competitive strength wherever we can find it. So we grit our teeth and once more leap into the breach.

But how can you discover the true value of a new language without sinking too much valuable time into learning it? Reading books on new programming languages is rarely an uplifting experience. Frankly, most of them are awful. Every now and then you can find a gem that not only kick-starts a new generation of programmers but also stands the test of time; for example, K&R^[1] has been the classic manual on C programming since the language first became popular. It introduces C and supplies everything you need in a reference manualpackaged in a short, readable, and (once) inexpensive paperback. (Today that slim paperback costs $42.) But as I said, this kind of brief, well-organized, and highly informative book is a rarity.

^[1] Kernighan, Brian W. and Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988).

So, after mucking around in a few of the early books available on a new language, most professionals start to learn a new programming language by writing their first program. This enables more learning than simply reading the somewhat contrived and artificial examples that most books set forth to introduce you to the language. To learn anything, it is usually efficacious to try to solve a problem.