2 ms·

I choose every language I use based on the expressiveness of the syntax. What other reason is there to choose a language?

• szany 15y ago
  Semantics.
  • debacle 15y ago
    Why choose a language with good semantics if the syntax is awful? Most languages today offer the same semantics - first class functions, objects, namespacing. Apart from that core, there isn't really a huge variance except for fringe languages that, generally, have severe syntactical limitations as a result.
• thu 15y ago
  Usually, expressivity in a programming language is not really a matter of syntactic constructs but a matter of semantic constructs. But choosing a programming language involves much more than semantic (or syntax). Depending on the situation, community, compilers and tools, libraries, consultancy houses, documentation and books, are all reasons to choose or not a language. Some even says that the number of programmers available on the market for a language is important. I don't think it is a good reason but a related one is: your existing user base is composed of companies and consultancies with their own programmers; you can't abruptly choose a different programming language than the one they know.
  • debacle 15y ago
    I would disagree. Semantically, we're reaching a point where most popular languages have a similar feature set (semantically speaking), and as new semantic constructs are created, they're quickly ported to other languages. I agree with you about the 'platform' of a language, though. That's one of those things that you can't get away from.