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Think about it like this: On your list of languages, which of them would you say is most productive? Define productive. Are you measuring raw lines of code ge

Think about it like this: On your list of languages, which of them would you say is most productive? Define productive. Are you measuring raw lines of code generated? Or are we measuring amount of production-ready code? My bet: with an experienced, diligent developer it's a wash. My gut says what you lose in a slow code-execute cycle of static, compiled languages you gain in lower defect rates from compile-time checks. Conversely, what you gain in a dynamic language, you lose in errors caught at run-time. At that point I'd select for languages that are simpler with fewer surprising semantics (crossing Perl and Javascript off the list), with more built-in run-time and/or compiler safety (knocking things like C off the list). I generally also prefer compile-time safety over run-time safety, as I'd rather find problems on my workstation than in the field because I missed testing a codepath.

kbenson 9y ago
> with fewer surprising semantics (crossing Perl and Javascript off the list) Actually, I think Perl has fairly few surprising semantics after you learn the major ones. The real problem is that the major one (or specifically the major one, context) is somewhat hidden in normal C-like usage until it jumps out at you and confuses you. Once you understand what it is, it's not all that surprising (but there are a few annoyances with it that still persist and cause problems). You can write Perl that looks almost exactly like C 95% of the time, but that 5% where it matters makes people that do this very confused. There are, of course, other parts of the language that are poorly chosen, but I maintain there are actually far less of them than many people seem to think. As for JavaScript, I still can't get over all the different ways to check for equality and null or undefined. I understand a good portion of that is because I never have to use JS enough to become truly proficient, and some if it is just poor design.

kbenson 9y ago

> with fewer surprising semantics (crossing Perl and Javascript off the list) Actually, I think Perl has fairly few surprising semantics after you learn the major ones. The real problem is that the major one (or specifically the major one, context) is somewhat hidden in normal C-like usage until it jumps out at you and confuses you. Once you understand what it is, it's not all that surprising (but there are a few annoyances with it that still persist and cause problems). You can write Perl that looks almost exactly like C 95% of the time, but that 5% where it matters makes people that do this very confused. There are, of course, other parts of the language that are poorly chosen, but I maintain there are actually far less of them than many people seem to think. As for JavaScript, I still can't get over all the different ways to check for equality and null or undefined. I understand a good portion of that is because I never have to use JS enough to become truly proficient, and some if it is just poor design.