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I've never had to maintain legacy code before, and I would prefer any language on the green list to any language on the brown list (right tool for the job aside

by fish45 5y ago

I've never had to maintain legacy code before, and I would prefer any language on the green list to any language on the brown list (right tool for the job aside), aside from Python and maybe C#. I know there are plenty of students and hobbyists who feel the same. I think the author is thinking too hard and overstating their results.

oblio 5y ago
> I've never had to maintain legacy code before If you didn't mistype your comment, it's super funny. So in a discussion about programming languages and software maintenance, you comment saying that you've never had to maintain legacy code? :-))
- fish45 5y ago
  I mean, if I've never had to maintain legacy code then my opinions on any given language are completely uninfluenced by the "honeymoon period" factor that the article is about, yeah?
  - scruple 5y ago
    But they're also just uninformed about the subject, generally, no?
    - fish45 5y ago
      The subject is about why the stack overflow most loved programming languages tend to be recent. The article argues that because developers don't like legacy code, their impressions of languages used in legacy codebases are tainted. The subject is distinctly not about what languages are best in legacy codebases. I have written code in many of the languages on the list, green or brown, and in a few of them I've worked with large codebases not written by me. I wouldn't consider any of them legacy though since they're fairly recent. I am also a person, so I have preferences about the languages I write in. These preferences are exactly what stack overflow polls about. Because I have not worked on any legacy codebases, my impression of brown languages has not been affected by working on legacy code. The fact that I, as a person who responded to the stack overflow poll who generally prefers green languages to brown languages, am unaffected by the factor that the author presents as significant, is an anecdata in opposition with the author's argument. It's true that I'm uninformed about working on legacy codebases, but that's not the subject that my initial comment addressed
  - oblio 5y ago
    In the argument of which is the best pet, Guinea Pig vs Squirrel, having owned none of them, I'd also be completely "uninfluenced by the honeymoon period" of owning them as pets. But I'd probably just call myself, maybe less politely but probably closer to the truth, clueless about owning small pet rodents :-)
    - jtsiskin 5y ago
      They have owned both a Guinea Pig and Squirrel, just never an old diseased one.
      - oblio 5y ago
        You make a good point about analogies. But since we were discussing about what the best way to raise them so that they avoid most old age diseases, I guess that takes us to square one :-)

by fish45 5y ago

oblio 5y ago

> I've never had to maintain legacy code before If you didn't mistype your comment, it's super funny. So in a discussion about programming languages and software maintenance, you comment saying that you've never had to maintain legacy code? :-))

fish45 5y ago
I mean, if I've never had to maintain legacy code then my opinions on any given language are completely uninfluenced by the "honeymoon period" factor that the article is about, yeah?
- scruple 5y ago
  But they're also just uninformed about the subject, generally, no?
  - fish45 5y ago
    The subject is about why the stack overflow most loved programming languages tend to be recent. The article argues that because developers don't like legacy code, their impressions of languages used in legacy codebases are tainted. The subject is distinctly not about what languages are best in legacy codebases. I have written code in many of the languages on the list, green or brown, and in a few of them I've worked with large codebases not written by me. I wouldn't consider any of them legacy though since they're fairly recent. I am also a person, so I have preferences about the languages I write in. These preferences are exactly what stack overflow polls about. Because I have not worked on any legacy codebases, my impression of brown languages has not been affected by working on legacy code. The fact that I, as a person who responded to the stack overflow poll who generally prefers green languages to brown languages, am unaffected by the factor that the author presents as significant, is an anecdata in opposition with the author's argument. It's true that I'm uninformed about working on legacy codebases, but that's not the subject that my initial comment addressed
- oblio 5y ago
  In the argument of which is the best pet, Guinea Pig vs Squirrel, having owned none of them, I'd also be completely "uninfluenced by the honeymoon period" of owning them as pets. But I'd probably just call myself, maybe less politely but probably closer to the truth, clueless about owning small pet rodents :-)
  - jtsiskin 5y ago
    They have owned both a Guinea Pig and Squirrel, just never an old diseased one.
    - oblio 5y ago
      You make a good point about analogies. But since we were discussing about what the best way to raise them so that they avoid most old age diseases, I guess that takes us to square one :-)