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Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

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Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#211

Post by krylon »

mfrager wrote: post #200

Perl. A language that is still ahead of its time. I have a system for building RPMs of CPAN modules and their dependencies automatically.

I have written a number of CGI scripts (in Perl, of course) at work, and my relationship with it oscillates back and forth between love and hate.

I would like to replace it very much, because I don't like Perl 5's type system very much (and something like Moose is overkill, IMHO, for a 500-line-script).

But it's just so damn useful, and most of the time I can get something to work faster than with Python or Go. So I might not love Perl, but you could say I respect it very much.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#212

Post by Insanity »

stinkytaco wrote: post #208
Insanity wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eloquent email responsed are not to be underestimated, being able to communicate in clear language is a valuable skill.

I find that clear notetaking is amazing in guiding discussions. Being the one who sends out the meeting summary with next actions and clarifying remarks or being able to refer back to meeting notes gives me an amazing power in making decisions or resolving disputes. Just because I'm the one who's writing stuff down, I'm somehow given the authority to say "this is what we decided at the meeting".

Absolutely! Can I ask if you are taking these nodes the old fashioned way with pen and paper or are you using a program to do this?

I myself have found out that during meetings I prefer to use a pen and paper but it is mostly just notes that I take for myself.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#213

Post by dejv »

noonespecial wrote: post #7

Pascal/Delphi Before there was an internet of lightbulbs and smoke detectors, there was an internet of industrial process things. And they used windows 2000 and Delphi. They still do.

I am working on 20 years old codebase that runs accounting, warehouse management, time tracking, invoicing and whatnot monster that power most of the roofing companies in Austria. It is still Delphi 5 + Paradox, developed on Windows XP (I run it from VM on Mac), but work on modern Windows as well. Networking is a bit of problem, but nothing we can't deal with.

On the other side, I don't think that Delphi/Pascal is dead and I am starting new project this month: control software for laboratory equipment. I can't find any other tool that will let me create multiplatform desktop software that interface directly with hardware. This new software will be written in Lazarus instead of Delphi.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#215

Post by ams6110 »

geebee wrote: post #146
danso wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still teach SQL, via SQLite, as a first language to students, even though in practice I do 90% of my data analysis through the command line or Pandas. But SQL is very direct and clear as a language, and the overhead of SQLite is...well, light. Making an index is just one more line of code that for many datasets, you run once and never touch again. What do you find simpler in terms of data querying and management?

I love sql myself. I'm not sure why I love it so much and other people hate it. Sometimes I think that coming up with reasons is just after the fact justification (do I really like it because it has a solid mathematical foundation in the relational calculus, or does that just sound like a good reason to say I like it)? Pandas is an excellent contribution to data analysis, but I gotta tell you, I was absolutely deligh…

IF you start to think in a set orientation, SQL makes a lot more sense. If you try to think procedurally you will struggle with SQL.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#217

Post by krallja »

nhatbui wrote: post #183
Skunkleton wrote: post #88

ITT: everyone realizes how old most widely deployed languages are.

As I read through this thread, I'm wondering what the "new" programming languages are and specifically, which are being used in production.

Swift, Rust, and Go are the current mainstream "new" programming languages.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#219

Post by notacoward »

C. Like most infrastructure software - yes, even today - the codebase I work with (Gluster) is almost all C. Personally there are about a dozen languages I'd rather use, and would use if I were starting my own project, but this is the environment in which I get paid to solve interesting problems and the fact that it's in C is just part of the package.
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