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Comment by elwell | Hacker News Reader

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elwell·

Use Java when you're paid by the hour.

Use Clojure when you're paid by the project.

Use Haskell when you need to ensure job security.

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I knew a guy named Steve who ensured job security using Delphi. He wrote this malevolent and semi-sentient framework called The Framework, that managed to combine the ugliness of COBOL with the programmer-friendliness of... well, COBOL, now I think of it. Delphi has a couple of different flavours of inheritence built in -- object inheritence, controls owning subcontrols, TFrames embedded in TForms -- but The Framework increased that number somewhat. From memory, I think I counted nine different kinds of hierarchy, all intermingling in weird and utterly undocumented ways.

For all I know, he's probably still working there. The poor, poor bastard.

Have you submitted your story to thedailywtf?

I often considered it, but this was over a decade and a half ago, and I don't recall enough details to make a good story out of it.

> Use Haskell when you need to ensure job security.

I'd say, Use Java when you need to ensure job security. And it is.

I'd say use C++ because it seems nobody writes in it any more. For ultimate job security, use MFC!

Still heavily used in games and finance! Though, you're right about MFC.

Ah yes, very true. I am not in games or finance but I use it day to day. Doesn't seem to be the language of the month and a lot of hatred is directed towards it, which I cannot fathom entirely.

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