Perl outreach

[David Cantrell]

On 27/11/2012 07:05, Peter Sergeant wrote:

> Conveniently buying a car and trying out a new programming language share
> are different in at least the outlay of thousands of
> dollars/pounds/whatever. Perhaps this is a reason to avoid car analogies
> when talking about programming languages.

Thousands of pounds to buy a new car whose controls you already know, or 
thousands of hours to become as competent in a new language as you 
already are in another.  They look pretty similar to me, both require a 
large outlay of a scarce resource.

I don't go out randomly buying new cars because I alread have one that 
works well.  Well, I don't go randomly learning new languages because I 
already have one that works well.

I'll buy a new car if:
   * my needs change and my current car no longer does what I need; or
   * I suddenly have a lot of spare money and want a new toy

I'll learn a new language if:
   * my needs change and my current language of choice doesn't do what I
     need; or
   * I suddenly have a lot of spare time

Until then, no matter how much I might want to learn Clojure or 
Smalltalk or whatever, realistically, I ain't gonna, because I have 
little free time and plenty of stuff to already fill it with.

-- 
David Cantrell | even more awesome than a panda-fur coat