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Comment by ncmncm | Hacker News Reader

"Anything"-oriented programming is dumb. Every big problem is a collection of smaller, different problems. Different problems call for different approaches. Sometimes the best approach has data-oriented features, sometimes object, sometimes functional, sometimes piped. For big problems you want a language good at all of them.

It is why C++ continues to grow. Some complain about that, but every single feature got there over fierce opposition by making some common programming problem more tractable.

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I wonder if Alan Kay would agree or argue with this sentiment, but it seems to me that the choice of 'oriented' was intentional and that we've consistently fucked it up ever since then.

Orientation should have been 'a preference for' not 'a dogmatic adherence to'. A hot-dog based diet still contains bread, ketchup, mustard and pickles, possibly some sort of cheese. A hot dog diet is just hot dogs, which is much, much less interesting, and there is no question that it is unhealthy, whereas the former might have some plausible deniability (especially if you add beans).

Alan Kay would doubtless disagree. But he would be as wrong as anybody else.

Preference is silly. The problem dictates its solution. The good programmer listens to the problem.

Its a good thing that these paradigm exist so you know their value, and eventually understand when they're appropriate. You're right that there may not be a one-size-fits-all.

So long as you don't confuse a "paradigm" with any objective reality. Purity is for monks.

I think this is also a reason people try to use JavaScript for so many things. As a multi-paradigm language you can do OOP, functional, etc. in it.

People try to use JavaScript for so many things because it's (surface-level) inexpensive, not because it's good at anything.

It is good enough

Yes, like PHP. In so many ways.

Mind-reading and zealotry, you must be a priest. What is your denomination?

I wouldn't call C++ "good" at any of those problems. "Good enough" - maybe.

No language is good compared to those that will come after we are all of us dead. But C++ is the best we have. If any other language were to catch up and pass it, we would have another choice. But C++ is not sitting still.

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