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1. Programmer has a domain problem ill-fitted to his current programming language of choice and knowledge is said language's libraries. 2. Programmer switches
by bonsaitree 17y ago
1. Programmer has a domain problem ill-fitted to his current programming language of choice and knowledge is said language's libraries.
2. Programmer switches languages to one well-suited to the domain and his current knowledge.
3. Miraculously, the domain's previous speed and abstraction munging issues suddenly disappear.
Why is this news?
Use the right tool for the right job. Syntax matters. Baked-In abstractions matter. Standardized library interfaces matter. This is precisely why the number of programming languages has grown, not shrunk, over time.
For the most part, programming languages aren't "better" or "worse"; than each other; they're simply "different".
Let that same programmer attempt to leverage C against an entirely different problem domain, such as a 3D physics simulation, and watch how rapidly the language's merits suddenly dissolve.
- silentbicycle 17y agoThat's not what the post is about. He's surprised how different C seems now to how it seemed when he was younger and new to programming. (C would definitely not be my first choice for a compiler, though.)