7 Languages in 7... Days???

I recently started learning Scala (you know when the New York Times refers to Java as an "older" language, it's time to update!). As I've started trying to shift my thinking from object orientation to functional programming, I remembered the book "Seven Languages in Seven Weeks" by Bruce Tate. I'm about halfway through Odersky et al.'s (excellent!) Scala book and thought I'd benefit from a look at Bruce's.

So here I go. Nothing unusual except that my goal is to go through a language a day and finish the book in a week. Why a week? I don't really have seven weeks, and besides, I'm going in to my office for one of my 3-4 times-per-year office visits, and I want to finish before I go in. Unless I totally flame out, I'll publish an entry each day, for each language.

One of my motivations is the effort involved to think in terms of functional programming. I never completed reading the first Scala book I picked up (and have already donated it to my local library book drive). Why? The author obviously no longer remembers what it was like to make the switch from Java to Scala. This makes it difficult for him to relate to someone who hasn't yet made the switch, and the material is presented in an order which is wildly inappropriate for someone who hasn't already learned Scala. Before >I< learn everything I need to learn, I would like to capture that learning process myself, so I can remember what it was like and possibly be more helpful to someone else (in case you're wondering, Odersky, Spoon and Venners do a great job connecting with object-oriented developers in their Scala book).

That's it for now. I see the first language in Bruce's book is Ruby, a language I once downloaded and never got around to using. Hopefully I'll have a meaningful post on his Ruby section by my late-night deadline. If not (either it's not there or it's not meaningful!), I'll try to catch up the next day. 

From http://wayne-adams.blogspot.com/2011/03/7-languages-in-7-days.html