Seven Languages in Seven Weeks

A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages

by: Bruce A. Tate

Published 2010-10-27
Internal code btlang
Print status In Print
Pages 330
User level Beginner
Keywords Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell, programming, languages, survey, JavaScript, Java, Rails
Related titles

Ruby: Several, including the Pickaxe book.
Io: None.
Clojure: Programming Clojure.
Erlang: Programming Erlang
Scala: Programming in Scala.

ISBN 9781934356593
Other ISBN Channel epub: 9781680504705
Channel PDF: 9781680504712
Kindle: 9781937785390
Safari: 9781680500059
Kindle: 9781937785390
BISACs COM051230 COMPUTERS / Software Development & Engineering / General
COM051010 COMPUTERS / Programming Languages / General
COM051010 COMPUTERS / Programming Languages / General
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Highlight

You should learn a programming language every year, as recommended by The Pragmatic Programmer. But if one per year is good, how about Seven Languages in Seven Weeks? In this book you’ll get a hands-on tour of Clojure, Haskell, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, and Ruby. Whether or not your favorite language is on that list, you’ll broaden your perspective of programming by examining these languages side-by-side. You’ll learn something new from each, and best of all, you’ll learn how to learn a language quickly.

Description

Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you’ll go beyond the syntax—and beyond the 20-minute tutorial you’ll find someplace online. This book has an audacious goal: to present a meaningful exploration of seven languages within a single book. Seven Languages hits what’s essential and unique about each language and will help teach you how to grok new languages.

For each language, you’ll solve a nontrivial problem, using techniques that show off the language’s most important features. You’ll discover the strengths and weaknesses of each language while dissecting the process of learning languages quickly—for example, finding the typing and programming models, decision structures, and how you interact with them.

Among this group of seven, you’ll explore the most critical programming models of our time. Learn the dynamic typing that makes Ruby, Python, and Perl so flexible and compelling. Understand the underlying prototype system that’s at the heart of JavaScript. See how pattern matching in Prolog shaped the development of Scala and Erlang. Discover how pure functional programming in Haskell is different from the Lisp family of languages, including Clojure.

Explore the concurrency techniques that are quickly becoming the backbone of a new generation of Internet applications. Find out how to use Erlang’s let-it-crash philosophy for building fault-tolerant systems. Understand the actor model that drives concurrency design in Io and Scala. Learn how Clojure uses versioning to solve some of the most difficult concurrency problems.

It’s all here, all in one place. Use the concepts from one language to find creative solutions in another—or discover a language that may become one of your favorites.

Contents and Extracts

Full Table of Contents