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Comment by nine_k | Hacker News Reader

> using tools and getting proficient with them rather than relearning tools

This attitude works in carpentry, but not in software. You need to get proficient, but your tools will keep evolving, like everything else in the software world.

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This attitude doesn't even work in carpentry, depending on the timeframe you look at, tools have changed over time. You can still use a hand saw, where a table saw would be just as suitable, or have a SawStop(tm) and reduce the likelihood of losing a finger.

In carpentry, you still do a lot of work with a hammer which did not change materially for last 70 years. Programming tools did change very, very much since 1956, even though some still retain the recognizable shape (e.g. Lisp or Fortran).

I don't think there are Titanium hammers 70 years ago. The changes are smaller but they are there.

That attitude works just fine in software. It's literally only web devs that are constantly chasing trends in how to make software.

That's a webdev mindset. Tools in embedded systems and systems programming are very mature and evolve much more slowly.

That's exactly the point. This is not normal even in software.

You can, in fact, learn C exactly once. Or any number of other languages. The entire argument being made here is that the world you're suggesting is a problem. Software developers should not have to continually relearn their tools and it is abnormal to suggest they should.

I've seen C written by people who learned it "exactly once", in let's say the 2000s. They're the same people who insist that all the safety & linting introduce since was pointless.

I'll take C written by people who've learned and improved since then any & every day of the week.

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