A transfer of skill between programming languages
Jean C. Scholtz · ACM SIGCHI Bulletin · 1989
Experienced programmers transferring to a new programming language have a far easier time than the novice learning a first language; however, they still experience considerable difficulties. The objective in this study is to characterize the kinds of learning and transfer that take place in the early stages of using a new programming language and when difficulties develop. Thinking aloud protocols have been collected from novice, intermediate and expert programmers. Half of the subjects were observed transferring to a language similar to Pascal. The other half were observed while transferring to a language dissimilar to Pascal.