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Re: [xsl] <quote>XSL is NOT easy</quote>

2007-06-26 00:46:15
On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:29:59 -0600, Michael Kay <mike(_at_)saxonica(_dot_)com> 
wrote:

I would agree with this entirely. But then, I think it's true of every other
programming language as well. There is an enormous amount of bad
unmaintainable code being written by self-taught amateur programmers, in all
sorts of languages, and many of them are attracted to languages like XSLT
that look easy at first sight.

Can't help but agree 100%. In addition, via Jeni Tennison @ http://www.jenitennison.com/blog/node/30

<quote>
With that in mind, look at how Ruby on Rails is marketed. A big play is made of how easy it is. But if a language or framework is easy then people with low self-efficacy can’t win: if they manage to do something with it then they haven’t really achieved very much because anyone can do it; if they don’t manage to do something with it then they’re complete idiots. I’m not saying that we should advertise languages or frameworks as being hard, because obviously that can put people off as well, but a recognition of the barriers that people might face may, in a strange way, make them more approachable.

This is also an issue for trainers: we need to be able to boost the self-efficacy of the people we train (particularly women) by setting them challenging (but achievable) tasks and not giving them too much help to achieve them.
</quuote>

One of the most satisfying moments in the lifespan of a programmer is when you finally understand something that is seen by many as difficult. It increases your self esteem, and it drives you to want to become an even better programmer as a result.

<quote>
LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.
</quote>

Eric S. Raymond, "How to Become a Hacker" @ http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

--
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354 | http://dev.aol.com/blog/3155

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