Python + Java knowledge

[Maurice LING]

Frohnhofer, James wrote:
> I have the same problem.  My 9 to 5 is using Java 1.1 (actually Visual J++) --
> don't ask . . .
> 
> That wasn't a problem in terms of skills and knowledge (and fun), after I got
> my kids to bed I would fire up IntelliJ and work on any of my pet Java
> projects.  But now that I've got the Python bug, I'm afraid my Java is
> slipping.  I haven't even tried out 1.5.
> 
> I was thinking of moving to Jython for my pet projects, but Jython appears to
> be 2 minor versions behind straight Python.
> 
> I don't have a solution or advice, only commiseration.

I am amazed about people like Eric Raymond that can pick up and use a 
dozen language, how did they do it? It is equally amazing that 
programming jobs these days require half a dozen programming languages 
known. I came with a background in Pascal and bits of C, and some xBase 
languages, then picked up Java and Python. Considering that my 1st 
bachelors degree is in biochemistry, I may be proud already...

Programming itself does not tax on the knowledge of a language to its 
fullest but debugging does. Sometimes when you email to API developers 
for help on that API, they may come back with a "that may be a <your 
language> specific problem, it works out well with <my language>." 
Someone did say this "citizenship is an abitrary institution whose main 
objective is to discriminate"...... From the other end of the world, I 
applaud EU for tearing down country barriers.

As mentioned in my post on 'reverse jython', I am envisioning the day 
where mixed language programming is a reality.

maurice