From Rails to Clojure, Then to Java, Then Back to Rails

Post by agumonkey » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 8:55 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #86

oblio wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering all the mainstream languages, some would argue that most people prefer them.

That would be like saying most people prefer VHS to Beta. Systems don't always/often win because they're the best or most liked. As with political views, most people prefer the ones they first learned. Only later in life, perhaps after becoming dissatisfied with what they know, they may risk trying something very different. My CS education was the typical Pascal/C/C++, so it wasn't decades later until I actually lear…

Post by lispm » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #92

blunte wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be like saying most people prefer VHS to Beta. Systems don't always/often win because they're the best or most liked. As with political views, most people prefer the ones they first learned. Only later in life, perhaps after becoming dissatisfied with what they know, they may risk trying something very different. My CS education was the typical Pascal/C/C++, so it wasn't decades later until I actually lear…

to me lisp is its own problem, its value is that it gives you too much it becomes anti social. Society likes ignorance and delegation, lisps gives you the ability to have everything into one atom and mold it as you need it. But that's only useful for 1) people with that kind of mindset 2) hard problems that fall off mainstream/commercial support

Post by yxhuvud » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 9:06 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #88

cutler wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ruby's composabilty really puts Python to shame. I can't imagine how Ruby lost out to Python.

While I much prefer writing Ruby to Python, Python is just dead simple to get real work done with. It's not elegant, but it's still so much less nasty than C++ or Java. Ruby's #1 problem, for me at least, is that your small project someday runs into a performance wall. I don't know the latest benchmarks, but last I recall Python was about 8x faster than Ruby when both are being interpreted. Yes, there's JRuby, but th…

Post by jashmatthews » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #47

pjmlp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ruby also suffers from top quality JITs vs what JS has. The only good option being JRuby, as far as I understand. I am not at all into Ruby. Regarding being polyglot and seniority, a possible solution is to work for consulting companies that focus on multiple stacks.

Most of the time you're not using JRuby for the JIT but for threads and/or to fit into some Tomcat/other Java environment. JRuby isn't exactly fast.

Post by nitrogen » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

derrekl wrote: post #8

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #5

Another thing I’m getting is that the new kids won’t like rails, and it’s being harder to hire. I'm surprised by this, to me the language used would be a long way down the list when evaluating an employer.

While I'd agree with you as an entry level candidate, with experienced people, I've found the language is often the most important thing on the list. Often above salary. I would say it is more commonly number one than any other factor. I only know of a few programmers who have shifted through more than 2 languages in their careers (20+ year type careers). I don't have brilliant insight as to why. Perhaps the fear of…