> as a programmer building run-of-the-mill CRUD web applications, having so many choices can be really daunting and confusing. When do you choose which type? I

> as a programmer building run-of-the-mill CRUD web applications, having so many choices can be really daunting and confusing. When do you choose which type? I feel similarly after getting back into Java after years of Javascript. Java has a ridiculous number of arrays and lists: Object[], List, Iterator, Iterable, Stream, and I think I'm forgetting a few. Some functions want or return one, some want or return another. I'm constantly convertings these from one to the other, and it's never pretty. (What the hell is a Spliterator?!) Meanwhile, in Javascript, there's just the Array. (It's not even really an array, but a hashmap that only takes integers as index, but nobody cares; it works.) And, like Ruby, Javascript also has easy object literals that is basically the exact same as the hash in Ruby. If there are any meaningful differences, I'd love for someone to enlighten me. The only difference I'm aware of, is that the preferred type for keys in Ruby is the Symbol, which is a very lightweight string, whereas in JS it's just a regular string. But, like the author, I strongly prefer to work in a language that just has a couple of sensible data types instead of making me choose from thousands that have no meaningful differences beyond their incompatibility.