Comments on: Programming Languages - The Map http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/ Personlig weblog for Christian Dalager (f.1973) Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:10:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: dalager http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3419 dalager Thu, 08 Jan 2004 07:57:05 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3419 Troels - I should be the first to accuse me for being Java centric, but you beat me to it ;-) But Java has become the general purpose programming language of choice for me, and as such it seems to work just fine. As for quite a few big businesses. But you're right, the political-religious wars are just sooooo tiresome. I'm afraid that I will never be one of those fortunate that master a multitude of languages. I know my little share and for now that's enough. Troels - I should be the first to accuse me for being Java centric, but you beat me to it ;-) But Java has become the general purpose programming language of choice for me, and as such it seems to work just fine. As for quite a few big businesses.
But you’re right, the political-religious wars are just sooooo tiresome.

I’m afraid that I will never be one of those fortunate that master a multitude of languages. I know my little share and for now that’s enough.

]]> By: Troels Arvin http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3418 Troels Arvin Wed, 07 Jan 2004 17:44:45 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3418 I don't see why anyone would _strive_ for running programs in a JVM. Good JVMs aren't readily available on all platforms, and JVMs are surrounded with much political confusion (not only Microsofts fault), meaning that rather few non-geek people have a good, properly installed JVM on their system. That's why I rephrase the classical Java motto to "Write once - run nowhere". (Yes, Java is widely used in some parts of the business computing World - so the rephrased motto isn't completely fair.) In my opinion, C++ has a lot of promise: The C++ compilers are beginning to generally support modern C++ features, and many parts of STL are really elegant. More and more interesting C++ libraries are starting to make use of templates, namespaces, STL-principles, exceptions, etc., which results in code which is potentially very elegant, type safe and probably with less buffer overflow problems than old-style C++ code. Combine that with the large pool of existing and popular, C++ based software, and you have a language with a potential which many a Java evangelist overlooks. C# obviously shouldn't be overlooked, but like Java, it's burdened by dire political questions. Python has already been mentioned. Good for programs where performance isn't of paramount importance. Nice, pragmatic cross-platform language. PHP is great as frontend for databases and libraries written in other languages. A declarative language like SQL isn't going to die any time soon. _Hopefully_, SQL can still evolve a bit, as vendors slowly implement more and more of the standard. At some point, we might even see a killer application which could suddenly boost the use of functional languages. My suggestion: Have a broader view, in stead of spending ages learning the latest overdesigned-Java-framework or Java-paradigm-of-the-week. I don’t see why anyone would _strive_ for running programs in a JVM. Good JVMs aren’t readily available on all platforms, and JVMs are surrounded with much political confusion (not only Microsofts fault), meaning that rather few non-geek people have a good, properly installed JVM on their system. That’s why I rephrase the classical Java motto to “Write once - run nowhere”. (Yes, Java is widely used in some parts of the business computing World - so the rephrased motto isn’t completely fair.)

In my opinion, C++ has a lot of promise: The C++ compilers are beginning to generally support modern C++ features, and many parts of STL are really elegant. More and more interesting C++ libraries are starting to make use of templates, namespaces, STL-principles, exceptions, etc., which results in code which is potentially very elegant, type safe and probably with less buffer overflow problems than old-style C++ code. Combine that with the large pool of existing and popular, C++ based software, and you have a language with a potential which many a Java evangelist overlooks.

C# obviously shouldn’t be overlooked, but like Java, it’s burdened by dire political questions.

Python has already been mentioned. Good for programs where performance isn’t of paramount importance. Nice, pragmatic cross-platform language.

PHP is great as frontend for databases and libraries written in other languages.

A declarative language like SQL isn’t going to die any time soon. _Hopefully_, SQL can still evolve a bit, as vendors slowly implement more and more of the standard.

At some point, we might even see a killer application which could suddenly boost the use of functional languages.

My suggestion: Have a broader view, in stead of spending ages learning the latest overdesigned-Java-framework or Java-paradigm-of-the-week.

]]> By: turbothy http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3417 turbothy Mon, 05 Jan 2004 21:47:55 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3417 Plzdisrgrdkthx Plzdisrgrdkthx

]]> By: dalager http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3416 dalager Mon, 05 Jan 2004 18:05:23 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3416 I only allow correct html -- you didn't end-quote your href="" ;-) Heh. That's a sweet language. But some people just don't know when to stop or go to bed or get a life... I only allow correct html — you didn’t end-quote your href=”" ;-)

Heh. That’s a sweet language. But some people just don’t know when to stop or go to bed or get a life…

]]> By: turbothy http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3415 turbothy Mon, 05 Jan 2004 17:53:28 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3415 Why do you write "HTML is allowed", when the linking doesn't work? Oh well, here it is for your browsing pleasure: www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/ Why do you write “HTML is allowed”, when the linking doesn’t work? Oh well, here it is for your browsing pleasure: http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/

]]> By: turbothy http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3414 turbothy Mon, 05 Jan 2004 17:51:10 +0000 http://dalager.com/blog/2004/01/04/programming-languages-the-map/#comment-3414 You forgot <a href="http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/" rel="nofollow">Brainfuck</a>! You forgot Brainfuck!

]]>