

Ask HN: Can I survive the rest of my life only knowing Java? - yellowbkpk

I work for a huge company in the Midwest writing Java server apps (not J2EE). After seeing the front page post enumerating the top three things that programmers hate, I realized that my environment is completely saturated by them. One of the things my manager suggested I look in to is training to think about something else for a while, so I come to you guys.<p>What kind of stuff should I be learning to expand my horizons and learn new and interesting (marketable, too!) skills? Where should I go to learn them? Are conventions worth the travel/admission cost?<p>Thanks!
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arockwell
You can make a living writing j2ee apps for the rest of your life, but I'm not
sure you'd want to... Here's a couple of things that have recently helped me
broaden my programming horizons:

Learning lisp from <http://gigamonkeys.com/book/>. I still completely suck at
lisp, but my eyes are opened to what you can do with functional programming
and metaprogramming.

Picking up Ruby and learning RoR. Any dynamic language would be helpful to
know... take a look at both python and ruby and learn more about whichever you
like better.

I've also gotten heavily into javascript recently because of jquery. I'm
pleased with how flexible the framework.

None of these things are something you can go pick up in a one week training
course. They're something you have to practice day after day to get better at.
The most helpful thing you can do is to get a side project with some new
language/framework and get cracking. Best way to learn imo.

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pmorici
"Where should I go to learn them? Are conventions worth the travel/admission
cost?"

The Internet and no.

edit: If your employer is willing to pay for you to travel to some great
location to attend a conference I wouldn't turn it down. Not a wise use of
your personal funds though.

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lacker
Ruby and particularly Ruby on Rails seem to be particularly exciting for
people who have just escaped the world of Java. Plus, web apps are the sort of
thing where you can make a simple one and entertain yourself quickly. Just
find a neat one day project and dive in.

The best way to learn is just to promise a couple close friends that you are
going to make a particular thing in the next day or two, and then you will be
forced to actually do it. You can get any information you need from the
internet.

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dusklight
Well there are still people making a living writing FORTRAN.

Can you survive? Yeah probably. Will you be happy? Are you happy now?

Conventions can be cool for social purposes, but if you want to learn
something new that is substantial, that's not going to happen in a week. There
is only one way to learn code, and that is to write code. No shortcuts :(

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noodle
you'll always be able to survive on one language. especially such a huge
language that will leave a giant legacy footprint if another language becomes
more popular. the question is, will you, personally and financially, prosper.
you want to do more than survive.

it won't be easy, but its possible. check out grails and seam to push yourself
into the rails-like environment running on java. i really like grails.

or, you can just do like others and learn rails or python.

~~~
fp

      or, you can just do like others and learn rails or python.
    

I suggest learning Ruby, not Rails. Unless you know Ruby, you will not be able
to really understand how Rails works. Ruby is way more than just Rails.

~~~
noodle
whoopsies, thats what i meant

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geuis
You need to learn something else. Java in particular is horrible about getting
otherwise competent developers stuck in one kind of mindset about how to do
software development. There may be some good practices that you've picked up
but you are also being limited by lack of exposure to other ways of
developing.

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ram1024
Learn how to utilize your java skills in making Android Apps!

just a thought... :D

