Learning New Languages

I think it is about time to start learning a new programming language. I think it has come a time where you should really use the best tool for the job and not just reinvent the wheel just because your language doesn't do a certain thing.

There are many languages out there that I wanted to try, like Ruby and Python. But what I'm also pondering to try C#. I have always delayed this because C# first seemed like a clone of Java, it didn't ran on Linux and it wasn't truly multi-platform. Today I believe I should know its special constructs if I ever need to use it, because everything else looks very similar to Java and C++. Is like 15% is new, everything else comes from other languages. As with any new language the main step in the learning path is learning is API. Like Java, C# has many modules that address many things. Knowing at least some of them would be good. This is even more true for someone who has been working in the same place for 7 years and sees a dark future ahead.

Today I installed MonoDevelop on my laptop to give it a go. It is still unstable and has already crashed twice, but it should be sufficient to make a few experiments with the language. Ruby and Python are also on my sight, specially the JRuby and JPython flavors.

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