Java > Scala

[dsimcha]

On Monday, 19 December 2011 at 19:52:41 UTC, ddverne wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 December 2011 at 07:09:21 UTC, Walter Bright 
> wrote:
>> A programmer who doesn't know assembler is never going to 
>> write better than second rate programs.
>
> Please I don't want to flame this thread or anything like that, 
> but this isn't a lack of modesty or a little odd?
>
> The phrase: "Who never wrote anything in ASM will not make a 
> firt-rate program" is a bit odd, because for me it's like say: 
> "A programmer who never programs on punched cards will never 
> going to write a first-rate program".
>
> Finally, what I mean is:
>
> Saying that will bring something good for the community? Or 
> should a new programmer would stop his D programming studies 
> and start with Assembly.

That misses the point.  Assembly language teaches the 
fundamentals of how a computer works at a low level.  It's 
similar to learning Lisp in that it makes you better able to 
reason about programming even if you never actually program in 
it.  The only difference is that Lisp stretches your reasoning 
ability towards the highest abstraction levels, assembly language 
does it for the lowest levels.

Programming on punchcards is equivalent to typing:  It is/was 
sometimes a necessary practical skill, but there's nothing 
conceptually deep about it that makes it worth learning even if 
it's not immediately practical.