• sovietknuckles [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    “The key point here is our programmers are Googlers, they’re not researchers. They’re typically, fairly young, fresh out of school, probably learned Java, maybe learned C or C++, probably learned Python. They’re not capable of understanding a brilliant language but we want to use them to build good software. So, the language that we give them has to be easy for them to understand and easy to adopt.”

    • silent_water [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      it’s such a deeply reductive and patronizing view of the capacities of other human beings. one of the languages they’re referring to is Haskell, so using it as an example, someone took it to a primary school near where they lived and taught it as a summer school program to said primary school students (I believe in Brazil). they picked it up readily. conversely, adults who all ready know how to code struggle with the language.

      that is, it’s precisely because we presuppose that these languages are “too complicated” and don’t teach them that creates the circumstances where people struggle to learn. if you expect that people can learn and change and give them support, it’s feasible in most cases. if you presuppose that they can’t, well by golly what do you know, they can’t.

      in other news I hate Rob Pike.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I’m not really competent at Haskell, but having my first language be FORTRAN of all things certainly flattened the learning curve. It’s not all that hard you just have to approach it without preconceptions.