On Monday 21 March 2005 19:45, Dusty Phillips wrote:

This is a weird-ass philosophical post. I'm sick and bored right now and my eyes hurt too much to look at the monitor, but I need something to do (*watches fingers typing...*).

I was just wondering why programmers choose the languages they choose... and why there is so much zealotry in this area. I mean, naturally, some languages are better suited to certain applications than others. But over all, I think we tend to choose a language more for aesthetic value than how useful it is! And aesthetics all depend on the user.

Take scripting languages. For some reason, I haven't been able to get the hang of Python. I think its a great language and I can code in it (who can't!?), but I don't find it really fun or enjoyable. On the other hand, I find coding in Groovy to be a great joy. Perl gives me the greatest of headaches, I can't stand scripting in it, I avoid it at all costs. I haven't tried Ruby, so I can't compare.

There are numerous other scripting languages. They are all designed for more or less the same tasks (arguable, yes). You can code the same scripts in Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Lua, Groovy, etc with approximately equal results. Yet if asked to code a particular generic problem, each of us would choose a different language! I guess when it comes down to it, it all depends what you *like* to code in.

Its a lot like music. When I was a kid, I played piano for a few years. I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't enjoy it all that much. Then one day I picked up a guitar and a teach yourself book... I enjoyed it. I guess some people are piano people and some people are guitar people and some people are clarinet people...

This is the only explanation I can come up with, thoughts? Also, I'd really like to have an explanation for the language nazism that goes on all the time. I can't understand that one at all. ;-)

Dusty

i guess, just as u described it, its an individual thing. each will find its own comfortable zone somewhere else... from my experience, i find myself every few years changing my aspect on this programming language or the other, always finding new pros/cons for this or that. but i guess its good - its an ever evolving world, and we should be dynamic, and we should learn new things daily - which we do. i always imagine programming as playing with Lego. i loved that when i was a boy, and i think linux is what resembles me the most of those days - take all those small parts to make a nice tractor or a palace... same with coding - combine all those bits and pieces together to make yourself a wonderfull piece of craftsmanship... sometimes u go with the red bricks, sometimes with the blue, sometimes u mix 'em all up. Elia Yehuda aka z4ziggy

Hmmm, that's a good question... it may have something to do with the way you learn something. I first learned C/C++, then moved to other things... most of my professors in school, while they taught other things, had begun with C. Maybe the style rubs off.... I also think there are certain parallels to the WM a person chooses. There's features which are important to one person and not another: some like eye candy, others like intuitiveness. This could be extended to the language world... I, personally, love scientific programming, and therefore, need high speed numerics.... which you won't find in anything high level or scripted... it's a feature that's important to me, but wouldn't be to, say, a GUI developer.