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Language wars are so pointless. Spend your energy on something else. Guess what. The programming language you use is pretty irrelevant to success. It's a matte
by axod 17y ago
Language wars are so pointless. Spend your energy on something else.
Guess what. The programming language you use is pretty irrelevant to success. It's a matter of taste, what other people are using (If you care), what has convenient libraries for what you're doing.
edit: OK I'll bite:
>> "It would be nice if "we" didn't learn anything about programming that needs new language features, but we do, and it's silly to omit features that make programming easier."
Examples? What have we really learnt about programming say in the last 5 years that requires new language features? Maybe it's just individuals that learn things about programming, and change their tastes.
- chromatic 17y ago> What have we really learnt about programming say in the last 5 years that requires new language features? Smalltalk traits and Perl 6 roles -- a missing feature of OO design.
- jrockway 17y agoReusing your code is just a fad that depends on personal taste. Real programmers cut-n-paste. Don't get me started on tests, what a waste...
- jrockway 17y agoPeople waste my time with language wars every time the word "Perl" is used positively. I thought I would waste other peoples' time to see if they liked it. Apparently not. Interesting, isn't it!
- berntb 17y agoThe trolling in Perl discussions seems almost organized. Then we find snide remarks about operator count voted to 14, here. (Edit: 15, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=931618 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=931618) Maybe we should add a link to this discussion, to let Perl people know how to handle language war trolls pro and contra?
- berntb 17y agoSince I'm not also at -4, I was probably unclear. I was talking about giving a link to when the insulting reference to operator count in Perl 6 was upvoted (17 now), the next time Perl discussions are trolled by Python/Ruby people... which is so common it seems organized.
- protomyth 17y ago"Language wars are so pointless. Spend your energy on something else." I think flamewars on languages are painful and wrong, but not pointless. Programming Languages are how we frame our thoughts about problem solving, and I think too many people go with the theory any language is ok. I hope for the sake of language design that the last 5 years would teach us a lot. Heck, for starters how many languages really have a good story about the multi-processor hardware that comes standard these days. I think leaving that solution to libraries really hasn't served us well.
- axod 17y agoProgramming languages shouldn't be concerned about multi-cores IMHO. That should be some magic sauce that goes on without anyone knowing/caring. (Also, 5 years ago people were hyping it up saying we'll all have 20 CPUs. Most still have 2 at most. The need for CPU power on desktops is going down). Would Charles Dickens stories been any less had he written them in French rather than English? :/
- protomyth 17y agoWell, all programming is not done on a client and poorly using the many CPUs of a server is not cost effective. I think we are a long way off from the "magic sauce" and languages designed to allow programmers to express their programs in a parallel manner are going to have an advantage. "Would Charles Dickens stories been any less had he written them in French rather than English? :/" - yep, they would have been - a particular turn of phrase or expression doesn't always translate well. Different languages bring different world views.
- nailer 17y agoshrug we have 32 cores, sometimes 64 here, and we're not doing anything amazing or buying anothing but off the shelf hardware (8 cores by 8 dies).