Quote Originally Posted by TheCPUWizard
Alsvha,

A good post. Understanding the concepts is key (above rote memorization of a given language). However it is also importtant to know the details of a specific language, and why there are "good" and "Bad" ways to accomplist a specific goal.

An algorithm or design pattern implementation that is great in C++ may be servely lacking when implemented in C# (or the other ay around).

I fail about 1/3 of job cantidates because they use techniques on the qualfying exam that are properly suited to a different langauge /environment. EVEN thought they WILL work 100%.

By the way...
"Y is diffenitaly better than X" (not the other way around as you originally posted.
Hence why it is important to "know" what you apply for - meaning the company, position and field of industry.
It is silly to show up at a web-development company trying to talk about in debt assembler code and show up at an medical equipment development company and talk about style sheets and web development techniques
Unless the company isn't searching for specific language of course, but looking for people they can educate themselves.

However, with the speed tools and languages/framework can evolve today, the fundamentals are way more important then actual language specific syntax in my opinion.
A candidate who show understanding of the key elements and problem solving skill, but perhaps not the correct syntax is in my opinion vastly superior to a candidate who know the syntax, but can't solve problems.

Of course the perfect candidate is the "all of the above" candidate, but for newcomers to the industry it is impossible to be "all of the above".

And personally - I got my current programmer job where we develop in vb.net without having ever written any vb code other then a tad vbscript and a tad vba.


And no - X is always better then Y dangnabbit.