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This isn't the right question to be asking. There are certainly cases where one language at another for a given task, e.g. Ruby is better for string parsing th

by crikli 15y ago

This isn't the right question to be asking. There are certainly cases where one language at another for a given task, e.g. Ruby is better for string parsing than PHP. But in many (most?) scenarios the technique used for the job matters far more than the language. Sorting is an easy example: bubble sort is a crap solution regardless of the language. Disclaimer: I can't read the actual page due to 503's and the cache isn't helpful, so I'm responding to the title and what I can divine from the linked page.

sophacles 15y ago
While I agree with this statement, that technique is more important than superficial or trivial language decisions, I think there is a second level of reasoning that needs to be brought into play here. Once you know several techniques and several languages, and have started to get a skill at identifying the core bits of a project, the process (or series of questions to answer) becomes: - what technique will effectively handle to core problems? - What languages make this technique simple to implement? and then the real kicker, which in a way comes full circle to the original naive analysis: - in the best language for $technique, are there any problems with secondary and ancillary problems associated with it? (e.g. i have to do this really fast lookup table of simple operations, C would be great for this, except that the data is irregular and involves a lot of string parsing C sucks at that..., or the central problem here is just a big fold, i'll use Haskell, but it involves a lot of tricky memory optimization to be fast enough...) Out of this of course arises a meta-technique of learning to partition problems into stages in different languages, which of course has its own problems.
pacemkr 15y ago
The "tool" decisions are usually made at the begining of a project. In that context, I disagree with your assesment. It often takes me a week, sometimes more, to evaluate and choose the right solutions for a new product. The techniques that I use when coding matter little during that time. What _does_ matter: third party services and libraries that will make it easier to build a better product. However, I agree that choice of language is only tangially significant. It's rarely a "pain point" for me. Gui toolkits, cloud services, hosting solutions, payment solutions, libraries for [you name it], etc. _those_ make up the "tool for the job."
vilya 15y ago
Actually, bubble sort has very nice access locality characteristics which mean it can be a great solution in some circumstances...

by crikli 15y ago

sophacles 15y ago

While I agree with this statement, that technique is more important than superficial or trivial language decisions, I think there is a second level of reasoning that needs to be brought into play here. Once you know several techniques and several languages, and have started to get a skill at identifying the core bits of a project, the process (or series of questions to answer) becomes: - what technique will effectively handle to core problems? - What languages make this technique simple to implement? and then the real kicker, which in a way comes full circle to the original naive analysis: - in the best language for $technique, are there any problems with secondary and ancillary problems associated with it? (e.g. i have to do this really fast lookup table of simple operations, C would be great for this, except that the data is irregular and involves a lot of string parsing C sucks at that..., or the central problem here is just a big fold, i'll use Haskell, but it involves a lot of tricky memory optimization to be fast enough...) Out of this of course arises a meta-technique of learning to partition problems into stages in different languages, which of course has its own problems.

pacemkr 15y ago

The "tool" decisions are usually made at the begining of a project. In that context, I disagree with your assesment. It often takes me a week, sometimes more, to evaluate and choose the right solutions for a new product. The techniques that I use when coding matter little during that time. What _does_ matter: third party services and libraries that will make it easier to build a better product. However, I agree that choice of language is only tangially significant. It's rarely a "pain point" for me. Gui toolkits, cloud services, hosting solutions, payment solutions, libraries for [you name it], etc. _those_ make up the "tool for the job."

vilya 15y ago

Actually, bubble sort has very nice access locality characteristics which mean it can be a great solution in some circumstances...