Hey, I am learning Perl and Javascript and so I just wondered how long it took people to get to a point where they could really put what they ae learning into practice? How long did it take you to understand Perl, Javascript or whatever language you may have leared?
As far as I'm concerned, it's a never-ending quest due to new languages and technologies. Learning good concepts and techniques takes a while. I don't remember how long it took me to understand it all. I've been programming since I was 12, and I can barely remember last week let alone 16 years ago when I started.
It takes a while. I look back on some of the code I wrote when I started and it really was pretty awful! As new methods come out you find yourself constantly learning. I'll tip my hat to any programmer who's able to just sit down and write programmes without referring to manuals, other code, examples and running into problems etc. The trick I found with me was to think the process through logically - then its only a matter of programming that logic if you can follow me!
For language syntax: a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the language For general programming paradigms: a couple of years.
I think it all depends on how good you are in logical thinking and of course, your will to learn. Learning the Perl/Javascript basics is only a matter of weeks, but really mastering them? That would take months and still...
Lol at becoming an expert in 3 months. I don't know what you consider an "expert", but in my books you can't become an expert in 3 months, and that applies for any language...