The Elite Programming Language Fallacy

Post by WildUtah » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:42 AM UTC

shin_lao wrote: post #22

jerf wrote: post #6

"So why does the term “elite” become attached to certain languages over others?" Because the causality flows the other way. At any given point in time, there are certain languages that the elite programmers tend to flock to, because they spend more time looking out for new, good things that the average person (part of what got them to "elite" in the first place), and therefore finding someone who knows that language…

because they spend more time looking out for new, good things that the average person Yet I think the best programmers I know use languages that are 20 to 30 years old as their main weapon of choice (C/C++ for example). I'd also care to say that once you reach a certain skill level, you see beyond the language and don't find yourself looking for the latest shining new stuff.

Post by defdac » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:22 AM UTC

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #7

I blame the Internet. No, seriously. Sites like HN and Reddit tend to have a vocal crowd who decide that certain languages and tools are the domain of the elite. This groupthink is religiously defended through self-righteous blog posts ("I switched from Java to C and became a better person!!!") and comment threads. Inevitably, posters go looking for something that the True Language is known to do well, and then overg…

Post by fogus » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:52 AM UTC

vessenes wrote: post #5

This sort of has a 'straw-man' feel to me. I've never heard the "Elite Programming Language" term before I saw it deconstructed in this essay. Most discussion around programming languages I see these days is centered around assessment of developer skills. This is understandable -- we're going through a period of massive technical talent shortage. Almost all tips we read through places like HN, including PG's notes, r…

    This sort of has a 'straw-man' feel to me. 
    I've never heard the "Elite Programming Language"
    deconstructed in this essay.

Post by fogus » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:56 AM UTC

SoftwarePatent wrote: post #20

vessenes wrote: post #5

This sort of has a 'straw-man' feel to me. I've never heard the "Elite Programming Language" term before I saw it deconstructed in this essay. Most discussion around programming languages I see these days is centered around assessment of developer skills. This is understandable -- we're going through a period of massive technical talent shortage. Almost all tips we read through places like HN, including PG's notes, r…

> I've never heard the "Elite Programming Language" term before I saw it deconstructed in this essay. Google search for "elite programming language" -"elite programming language fallacy" [1] (to avoid links to this post) yields eight results. It seems the term "elite programming language" was coined by the author in order to knock it down, which is one type of a straw-man argument. [1] https://encrypted.google.com/se…

    It seems the term "elite programming 
    language" was coined by the author

Post by fogus » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 10:08 AM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #13

I think the post somewhat misses the point of "elite languages" by denying their existence in teh first sentence. To see the absurdity of the claim, reword the argument thus: "There are no clubs that will make you “elite”. In fact, there are no “elite” clubs." But, of course this is not true, there are clubs for which membership shows eliteness. This is not a physical property, it is agreed upon by the relative strat…

    But, of course this is not true, there are clubs 
    for which membership shows eliteness. This is 
    not a physical property, it is agreed upon by 
    the relative strata of society.