From: Daniel Lewis Date: 2005-11-04T00:49:43+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby Certification > I have a hard time believing that someone experienced with only C and > Java, however good they are with them, can really learn Lisp or Haskell > by looking at some examples. But if you know the concepts of declarative programming, then lisp will be easy. If you know the concepts of functional programming then Haskell will be easy. My point was merely on a syntax level. Once you have the syntax, then people can delve into the other concepts. For example, I'd like to know how Ruby can work functionally, I'm not rushing into learning that straight away, I want to learn the syntax/key-words first. > Part of learning a new language is unlearning habits acquired while > using another language. Yessum, it took me a while to grasp Pascal after learning Visual Basic, C and C++. (which reminds me, i really don't like Pascal). I picked up Prolog quite easily though, and thats entirely different to C/C++. > But certification as such is of even less value than simply calculating > one's Ruby number, and far less entertaining. Unless, as suggested, > you're in the certification business. Certifications are an easy way for some people to get into the industry. But I think experience counts for a lot more than a certificate.