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Sorry to sound so dramatic but I don't know how to put this in better words: After reading this thread, is there even a proper way to measure how good a langua

Sorry to sound so dramatic but I don't know how to put this in better words: After reading this thread, is there even a proper way to measure how good a language is (trade-offs, benefits down the road)? Having done web stuff in PHP and Python I think both are terrible. So, how would a programmer trying to avoid his own biases and anecdotes find what tools are right for each job? Maybe I didn't "liked" PHP and Python because I'm a terrible programmer. Or maybe I only worked with awful teams. Is there any science involved or should I make my decisions based in what blog post I read that week? How can I actually trust the opinion of companies/engineers if they are so invested in that tech? Who would admit that after investing millions on it they didn't actually think it was worth it? There's no way that I'll be able to have deep knowledge about all the languages that are out there. The sad thing is that I end it up choosing whatever is popular and half sane because not finding (updated/well-maintained) libs or tools you need is worse than picking a niche language that might do the job better.

pre 10y ago
> is there even a proper way to measure how good a language is? Nope. I mean. They're all Turning Complete (except for the ones that deliberately aren't), and they're often good at expressing different types of problems. So depends what you're trying to do. Trouble is, it so often turns out you didn't really know what you were trying to do till you were nearly done doing it and then you're stuck with what you picked. PHP is pretty good for building website prototypes, and can now handle the scale as they grow too really. But "Good" depends on what you're trying to do, and what tools you already are running anyway. Is there a way to measure how good a spanner is compared to a hammer?
pramodbiligiri 10y ago
There's no easy answer to this, but books like CTM [1] give an overview of the programming languages landscape. They can come in handy when evaluating language designs. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-Programming/dp/0262220695 https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-P...

pre 10y ago

> is there even a proper way to measure how good a language is? Nope. I mean. They're all Turning Complete (except for the ones that deliberately aren't), and they're often good at expressing different types of problems. So depends what you're trying to do. Trouble is, it so often turns out you didn't really know what you were trying to do till you were nearly done doing it and then you're stuck with what you picked. PHP is pretty good for building website prototypes, and can now handle the scale as they grow too really. But "Good" depends on what you're trying to do, and what tools you already are running anyway. Is there a way to measure how good a spanner is compared to a hammer?

pramodbiligiri 10y ago

There's no easy answer to this, but books like CTM [1] give an overview of the programming languages landscape. They can come in handy when evaluating language designs. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-Programming/dp/0262220695 https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-P...