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Meanwhile I will take "weird" languages almost any day... Icon (Unicon), Snobol4, Pike, Awk, Pascal. In a perfect fantasy world I'd also hire these people first

Meanwhile I will take "weird" languages almost any day... Icon (Unicon), Snobol4, Pike, Awk, Pascal. In a perfect fantasy world I'd also hire these people first. As the article indicates, there's no SO or Google to find solutions easily... You need to read the docs or find some dark corner of the web for help you require. It highlights passion and genuine interest in understanding what you're doing and figuring things out yourself. Whereas your languages are financially job driven... Not curiousity driven; and my issue with that is if you can learn the esoteric languages, the mainstream languages are laughably easy. I also love weird (/old) languages as the community that exists, however small, are asking 400-level questions amongst each other and not CS-101 topics. There's a nice serenity in not having polluted search results of utter basics.

agentdrek 4y ago
Snobol4! I keep a couple of books like Snobol4 programming and my C64 Reference Guide around to remind the kids that the history of computing was old even when I started. It's surprising reading through those older texts and languages how little things have changed other than the speed of computation and connectivity of computer networks.
eternityforest 4y ago
Ignoring unusual languages doesn't guarantee you are financially driven, sometimes it just means you're more interested in the actual use case than the tech. My favorite programming language is an amazon link. If I can say "I could build this, but it already exists here", I'm happy because I know I've given them something truly professional in a week that would have taken way longer and cost way more to build, plus any random person can work on it and parts will be available on eBay. Using common languages is just an extension of that. If someone uses unusual languages, I expect they'll have unusual problems that will become my problem if I'm working with them.
- gompertz 4y ago
  I agree with you 100%, especially on the first paragraph. Definitely I'm interested in use cases and knowing best tool for job. I only mentioned the finance part as the poster mentioned recruiting a couple times... Thereby a job, and money.

agentdrek 4y ago

Snobol4! I keep a couple of books like Snobol4 programming and my C64 Reference Guide around to remind the kids that the history of computing was old even when I started. It's surprising reading through those older texts and languages how little things have changed other than the speed of computation and connectivity of computer networks.

eternityforest 4y ago

Ignoring unusual languages doesn't guarantee you are financially driven, sometimes it just means you're more interested in the actual use case than the tech. My favorite programming language is an amazon link. If I can say "I could build this, but it already exists here", I'm happy because I know I've given them something truly professional in a week that would have taken way longer and cost way more to build, plus any random person can work on it and parts will be available on eBay. Using common languages is just an extension of that. If someone uses unusual languages, I expect they'll have unusual problems that will become my problem if I'm working with them.

gompertz 4y ago
I agree with you 100%, especially on the first paragraph. Definitely I'm interested in use cases and knowing best tool for job. I only mentioned the finance part as the poster mentioned recruiting a couple times... Thereby a job, and money.