Re: What to learn in current times?

If you are looking for a Perl based job and need to update your knowledge, what you should study?

Chinese. Because that's where the next big wave of jobs are coming from.

In my experience, to get a Perl job, most of the time you need something else. For the past 15 years, I've used Perl in my job in one form or another. In only one job, I was an actual Perl developer (but I was hired for knowing more than just Perl); for the rest, Perl was just an important tool. Saying "I want a Perl job" sounds to be "I want a job where I can drive a car". There are lots of jobs that involve driving cars. But for most of them, having a driving license isn't the only (or the most important) requirement for the job. Nor is the job advertised as "driving a car".

Comment on Re: What to learn in current times?

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Re^2: What to learn in current times? by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Feb 16, 2010 at 11:55 UTC
++. For the OP and others: I think this is a very sober answer. Most job posts for Java, C, sysadmin, and to a lesser degree things like DBA and business analyst put Perl in the "nice to have" list. It can facilitate just about any computer oriented work flow. The first four jobs in which I used Perl were not primarily Perl jobs at all; including graphic design and customer service. I have drifted into full blown (web-oriented) Perl jobs just because I like Perl so well and because every time my job's ratio of Perl has increased my pay has too. :)	[reply]
Re^2: What to learn in current times? by Jenda (Abbot) on Feb 17, 2010 at 16:53 UTC
As soon as they adopt an alphabet with a sane number of graphemes I might. If I were born in China even basic school kid's comics magazines would be out of my reach. IMNSHO the chinese alphabet was one of the main reasons of Chinese stagnation in comparison to Europe. It efectively prevented the invention and spread of book printing. There's simply way too many graphemes for this to be feasible. Jenda Enoch was right! Enjoy the last years of Rome.	[reply]
Re^3: What to learn in current times? by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Feb 17, 2010 at 19:33 UTC
Korea is a good example of this problem. They had no writing system of their own 600 years ago. They used Chinese idiograms. Their illiteracy rate was enormous. In the middle of the 1400s court scholars at the direction of the king developed a simple, purely phonetic alphabet for Korean. Today it contains, 24 letters, IIRC, and can be learned by a non-native in a day or two, making phonetic reading fairly simple. The CIA says China's literacy rate is 90% and Korea's is 98%. And frankly I think the definition of literacy here gives China tremendous benefit of doubt. A Korean who can read, can read all Korean words, even if they are unfamiliar. A Chinese person who can read at a basic literacy level would probably find most of the uncommon/scholarly idiograms unintelligible. Sidenote: I find Chinese writing incredibly beautiful.	[reply]
Re^4: What to learn in current times? by Jenda (Abbot) on Feb 17, 2010 at 22:55 UTC
Agreed. As an art form, it's great. As a means of communication ... it's too complicated for the likes of me. i.e for the (even slightly) dysgraphic. Jenda Enoch was right! Enjoy the last years of Rome.	[reply]