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Comment on Ask YC : What determines command of a programming language?parent

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Thanks for your response. I had learnt C and Cobol before and those were driven by the projects I was assigned to. I am confident with the algorithm but I should reduce the frequency of looking up the manuals.

With all the batteries-included languages running around I think reliance on documentation is an irrelevant (obsolete?) measure.

I for one am constantly apropos-ing in CL even though it is my primary language.

Well, what about not being reliant on docs for syntax, but only for library functions? I can never remember what each language calls "length" (length? size? Is it the same for strings and arrays? What about number of keys in a map?) but I don't feel too bad about that, even in languages I use every day.

On the other hand, if I have to look up the syntax for a loop, then I can't say I know the language yet.

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