programming language – Equivalence

There comes a time in every programmers life when they have to learn new things and step out the box. Yeah it’s difficult, for sure. It’s all too easy to create the latest application in your software empire, using a language you’ve been developing in for the last 10 years. However, the real problem is thinking this is the only choice. When is it time to abandon this certitude?

First, we cover the forced abandonment. This is when you are pushed kicking and screaming into pastures new, whether you like it or not, i.e. the new job. Here, not only is the new language curve ball thrown (viciously), but you also get whole new set of business rules into the bargain. So what do you do? You program the new language like the old one, only translating the syntax in your head. This is not the best way to learn a language though. Why? Well consider those C programmers trying to program imperatively in Java, Java programmers in JavaScript, C++ programmers in Ruby, and so on. When there is a change in paradigm this mapping strategy just doesn’t work – a similar situation exists with languages that contain a more powerful expression set. It also encourages the behaviour where people learning enough to get the job done, without understanding what is really happening, or that there may have been a better way using “unmappable” language’s features. A better approach would be to write something small, and new, that allows you to explore the language’s features. I’m sure most people can think of something they could write. Furthermore, if you can make it useful to other people, or even your new employer, then everyone’s a winner! This is something I touched on before.

For many people though, this is the only time they will ever consider abandoning. This is sad, and a poor characteristic in a programmer. And to be honest, I just don’t understand it. That’s not to say that I don’t accept that people just do programming as a job, then go home and don’t think about it. However, it’s like most things in life, it’s nice to progress?

As a programmer there will also be other signs that the tide is turning, and you don’t have to be too alert to spot these. Previously I wrote “Perl is Dead, Long Live…Perl?” and being a big Perl fan it was sad to see the language apparently dying, so I know what it’s like. Some signs to look out for may be:

the language features are not moving on (Java watch your back) – the people who created it no longer care,
the community surrounding the language is dwindling – the people who use it no longer care,
there is little in the way of choice when selecting libraries/frameworks – the experts have fled,
other programmers have never heard of it – there is no buzz,
jobs using it are few and far between – businesses have given up on it, the death kneel.

However, this is all not to say that you give up on your language just because it’s no longer cool – popularity is by no means a great indicator that something will suit your needs. It need not be the case that you give up on your language of choice, instead it could be that you contribute and drag the language forward. But be careful with this one.

Finally, any decent employer will want to see that you are continually developing your skill set – their business needs are continually evolving, so why aren’t you? You are much more likely to land a better job if you contribute to your own education in some way. It looks good and it’s also something to talk about.

So go out and learn something new today, and stop sticking with what you know.

It appears that many people seem to have too much of their life wrapped up in a particular programming language. You only need to look over at dZone, Reddit or Digg to see this fandom in all its glory. All too often we find articles about why such and such a programming language sucks. However, just because a language sucks for one (or a couple) of particular reasons, it doesn’t mean it is not useful in general. It’s like me saying computers suck because they crash. However, just because my computer crashes from time to time doesn’t mean it’s not useful.

I just find the whole religious aspect to a language rather pathetic. The result often leads to the inappropriate choice of language for development of an application, simply because the individual’s voice that is heard the loudest makes the decision. Ok, if any language will do then just go with whatever you are comfortable with, but stop yourself bitching about other people’s choice of language.

For example, the number of times you hear people saying dynamic languages are no use, for a plethora of reasons, is stunning. You would think that no one had ever developed anything of reasonable size and scale in these languages. It’s not as if most of the largest websites on this planet have not been written in PHP/Python/Ruby, yet you still read articles where people are saying where such a feat is likely to lead to catastrophe. Stop doing this it makes you look stupid.

The same can be said for those that diss Java. OK, I think it’s possibly a poor choice for those considering a startup web business (basically if you are going to be considering shared hosting Java as an option on this platform is nonexistent), but there are many places where the use of existing libraries written in Java make it the ideal choice for an application. An example of this can be seen in what I’m currently working on, which is an application that uses constraint programming techniques. There are a few such libraries in other languages but the most mature and feature rich (and free) are in Java so sense dictates you use Java.

Essentially my bug bear boils down to people choosing a language for the wrong reasons, more often than not due to blind faith rather than education. Don’t just use a language because it is popular, use it because it best fits the job needing done. Popularity can come into it though, because at the end of the day you might wish to tap into a large set of existing programmers, or you may want to attract the brightest young talent who want to work in what’s popular/new. Just don’t let it be the only thing that dictates your choice.

Unfortunately, regardless of however many blog post or articles people read and write, I feel that we are never going to remove this inherent language evangelism. Maybe the industry would be in a far better position if we were all language agnostic. Can you imagine how much more work would get done if people spent the first two months of a project actually doing work rather than arguing about what language it should all be written in.