The Best Programming Language? | Hacker News Reader

The Best Programming Language?

jmtirado.net

10 pointsktulurules11 comments

I don't know who originally coined the phrase, but I really like this: "Python is the second-best language for everything."

This is the main reason why I enjoy learning Python and for me, Python is the best programming language.

If this is considered self-promotion and it is decided to be flagged I will be OK with it. However, I think there are some ideas in this post about what we expect from programming languages and the general developer culture.

The discussion of what makes good and bad languages has been going on for centuries, and regularly brings up good and interesting points that some might not have heard before.

Your post is very broad and mixes different criteria: Popularity, aesthetics, usability, speed etc. You argue that people like different languages; some people irrationally like some and dislike others; not all programmers apply the same evaluation criteria.

The problem is - all of these are old arguments, and calls for open-mindedness are nothing new. I'd find it much more interesting if you talked about a technical, concrete example how one can benefit from open-mindedness. E.g.: Decouple your modules so you can use different languages side-by-side; write the same code in two languages so you can battle-test your implementations etc.

Obviously this discussion is not new. I tried to point out (with no success I guess) the fact that most developers adopt languages in a religious way, and criticize others ignoring the most basic reasons behind these languages.

Thanks for your comments.

Since you're a computer scientist - do you have an example for reasons behind languages that are misunderstood or unknown? I'd love to read a post about that.

That is an interesting idea for a future post. Thanks.

By the way - your google scholar profile is conflated with this material scientist: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1390-0094

[edit: deleted superfluous suggestion, author is aware]

Yes I know. And I have requested these changes for a while with no success. Google scholar algorithm does not distinguish me and that scientist, that is why it mixes everything. Thanks for mention it.

Sorry for that - it must be frustrating.

Perhaps it would help to have an ORCID for yourself - you could also link to that from your page. Many publishers and universities are beginning to automatically ingest ORCID data, so it's a good investment.

The article is good, in spite of the uninspiring title.

Instead of "X language sucks" or "X vs Y", what would be nice to have:

Use X if you have goals A,B,C, or Y if you want D,E,F

(or something similar)

I dont know if a list like this exists

Programming languages are just like tools in your toolbox. Use the hammer to hammer in nails, and use the screwdriver to drive in screws.

For example, maybe use Ruby on Rails to rapidly prototype a data-base driven CRUD app, but when you need to build a low level device driver, maybe you should use a language like C++

There is no "best" language for everything. There are only languages that are best for certain niches.

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