Looking for a Python PHP programmer

[Roger Binns]

Leif K-Brooks wrote:
> a wrote:
> > I am looking for a Python/PHP programmer with over 6 years of experience to
> > develop applications in a UNIX (open source) environment.
>
> PHP 3, the first version resembling the PHP we know and hate today, was
> only released in June 1998. It seems a bit unreasonable to expect people
> to have been using it since a month after its release.

They may mean 6 years of general experience, not necessarily experience
in PHP and Python for that period of time.  I have frequently heard
anecdotal "evidence" that it takes about 2 weeks to turn a decent
programmer into a decent Python programmer.

PHP seemed a little hairier to me and by my estimation would take about
2 months to reach the same level of proficiency.  A lot of that is due
to the PHP history, as any particular version has all sorts of stuff
that is being cleaned up and/or deprecated.  Everything being a
string is also a help in a web environment, until it starts hindering
you adding to the proficiency time.

Roger