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When/how can a company assess that using a particular language is a "competitive advantage"? It seems that the competitive advantage is perhaps in hiring the pe

by dpflan 8y ago

When/how can a company assess that using a particular language is a "competitive advantage"? It seems that the competitive advantage is perhaps in hiring the people who are actually proficient in the language -- and the advantage arises when that language is one that has X, Y, Z paradigms and is designed for A, B, C use cases, and then is used appropriately. > https://twitter.com/devoncestes/status/1104000439987683328 https://twitter.com/devoncestes/status/1104000439987683328

lazyant 8y ago
yes, I'd say if a language fits the product for some reason then it's an advantage, but a "competitive advantage" sounds like a stretch. If it's a niche language you want to attract the programmers in a smaller pool so you may as well advertise it.
whizzkid 8y ago
I am not advocating for the company but it might be something like this; Handling of same amount of users comparing to their competitors with a software stack that requires %70 less employees to run will give them enough room to lower their product price comparing to others. Imagine If they can keep it this way X number of years, then they will be able to eliminate their competition.
- elcritch 8y ago
  Not just the cost, but often the complexity reduction in team communication overhead can mean improvements in the ability to add features and services quickly. Financial arenas deal with a lot of events that need to be processed quickly with complex data transformation requirements that change quarterly in many cases.
- Consultant32452 8y ago
  Minimizing costs like this is most important for commodity software with lots of similar competitors. I think the real answer will vary greatly from company to company and market to market. Generally, I would recommend companies be careful to not think they're all that special. Special companies/products/markets may require special tools, but 99% of companies should pick the most mainstream tools available: Java, .net, c/c++, etc.
- hopler 8y ago
  Developer maintence time is not the marginal cost/priced of software. Software has low marginal cost to the economics is all about scaling up sales, and your tech stack is mostly binary: the job is either possible or impossible. developer cost within a factor of 10x is irrelevant.

by dpflan 8y ago

lazyant 8y ago

yes, I'd say if a language fits the product for some reason then it's an advantage, but a "competitive advantage" sounds like a stretch. If it's a niche language you want to attract the programmers in a smaller pool so you may as well advertise it.

whizzkid 8y ago

I am not advocating for the company but it might be something like this; Handling of same amount of users comparing to their competitors with a software stack that requires %70 less employees to run will give them enough room to lower their product price comparing to others. Imagine If they can keep it this way X number of years, then they will be able to eliminate their competition.

elcritch 8y ago
Not just the cost, but often the complexity reduction in team communication overhead can mean improvements in the ability to add features and services quickly. Financial arenas deal with a lot of events that need to be processed quickly with complex data transformation requirements that change quarterly in many cases.
Consultant32452 8y ago
Minimizing costs like this is most important for commodity software with lots of similar competitors. I think the real answer will vary greatly from company to company and market to market. Generally, I would recommend companies be careful to not think they're all that special. Special companies/products/markets may require special tools, but 99% of companies should pick the most mainstream tools available: Java, .net, c/c++, etc.
hopler 8y ago
Developer maintence time is not the marginal cost/priced of software. Software has low marginal cost to the economics is all about scaling up sales, and your tech stack is mostly binary: the job is either possible or impossible. developer cost within a factor of 10x is irrelevant.