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I'm a Java dev (and the one you replied to) and in the past when I didn't work at my own company the real reason Python was often not picked was because it was
by agentgt 9y ago
I'm a Java dev (and the one you replied to) and in the past when I didn't work at my own company the real reason Python was often not picked was because it was considered "a toy language" or "scripting language" (ie hard to maintain) and also because it didn't have vendor support like Java did. Of course this was like 8-10 years ago.
I still program and sadly prefer writing code in Java over Python even though I have tons of Python scripts in my ~/bin that I have written over the years. Mainly because I just know the ecosphere better.
And thats what most people should just admit why they choose a particular programming language. As long as its good enough... better... is just what you know more of... the cost of learning something new just to replace something new for marginal speed increase isn't worth it.
So when people say Java is slow to learn, not cool or slow to develop in because the language is verbose... I say just like you: "I Dont' Care" because learning the whole ecosphere of another language is goddamn expensive (that is languages are relatively easy to learn but all the libraries, best practices and tools is another thing entirely).
- nhumrich 9y agoThats a very fair argument. But lets say hypothetically that language X was more "productive" than language Y. Wouldnt it be a worthwhile "investment" to learn X seriously? Sure it might slow you down for a year, but after that it pays dividends.
- agentgt 9y agoYes of course and for my own personal projects I will take the time often to learn new languages (e.g. Rust). However when dealing with a team often with an existing code base getting everyone on board with "X" while potentially porting to "X" is fairly expensive. Its generally only worthwhile because of actual technical limitations and not productivity. Even the promise of safety (ie prevention of bugs) I would probably consider higher than productivity (although I suppose that is in way productivity). Regardless productivity is really hard to measure and especially predict unlike other technical things.
- Can_Not 9y agoBut if it's all unjustified hype, unmentioned drawbacks, and empty promises, then your losses can be extraordinary.