Likewise, programming does not require that you spend months and years learning particular programming languages or systems in order to grasp the fundamentals. At a party with a friend a few years ago, I ran into an acquaintance who is also a programmer. We began to talk shop, and after a few moments my other friend drifted away. I later asked her why, and she explained that we had stopped speaking English. Many of my friends have had similar experiences.
Programmers often do speak a language seemingly all their own.
Like trying to learn a foreign language from a dictionary, just understanding the words is not enough to make one a programmer. How Programming Works is not a dictionary of jargon. Nor does it try to teach you to program in a particular language. But by the time you have finished reading it, you will understand most of the concepts on which all computer programming and computer languages are based. After reading this book, when the conversation turns to computers and programming you will be able to follow it and participate not because you have memorized lists of words, but because you will understand the ideas on which the conversation is based.