Where's R?
R is a delightful environment hobbled by a hideous language.
Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
71–80 of 626 posts
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#72It depends what I'm trying to do.
The question is like asking a carpenter what their favorite tool is.
It'd be more enlightening to (somehow) ask what kinds of problems people apply each language to.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#73It's funny. Every time I use a new language, or go back to an old favourite, it becomes my favorite language for a time. Static typing? Wonderful error messages! Dynamic typing? It does what I want! Functional programming? This is the future of programming! Object-oriented programming? I can describe the world! Low level? My code is fast . High level? My code is *expressive. Is this normal or is it just me? Don't you…
I'm the same way, though I feel like this flies in the face of reason. Switching to a less familiar language usually implies more headaches and less productivity, but the novelty makes it more enjoyable. Another example of how programming is oddly emotional.
Nothing odd about it, IMHO. One of the things I think tech-oriented people consistently ignore is the role of emotion and the subconscious in decision making, even in what are nominally objective disciplines. Our conclusions may be based on reason, but then where do our hypotheses and inspirations come from?
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#74I love Ruby, but ultimately Python is my favorite.
Ruby is consistent and cool, but I can do everything I want with Python and I can make it FAST as hell.
Over the past week I've been moving some things into Cython and it has literally sped 200 times faster than Python which is 10 times faster than Ruby, and with a lot less memory overhead. Speed _does_ matter when the two languages are nearly the same in terms of development speed. Furthermore Python has more libraries and less wtf moments when looking at peoples code.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#75I am interesting in knowing at what time exactly would people think they have experienced enough language exposure to decide on the favorite one. Like, my favorite now is C, because thats the one I know best, and I cant say that this wont change, since I am learning Ruby and it rocks.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#76The number of C# votes makes me very happy. When I originally signed up oh.. 1333 days ago it felt like I was the only .Net dev on the site. It was a huge deal for me to find other startups built on .Net back then. Now I discover them far more often. I think Microsoft must be doing something right. I blame Scott Gu.
Yeah, isn't it great that more people are backing a proprietary, closed source, Windows-centric technology? (As a pre-emptive strike, Mono does not make .NET any more "open". If Mono was maintained and supported by the same people that design the language/APIs I might change my tune.)
Yes, it does.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#77It's funny. Every time I use a new language, or go back to an old favourite, it becomes my favorite language for a time. Static typing? Wonderful error messages! Dynamic typing? It does what I want! Functional programming? This is the future of programming! Object-oriented programming? I can describe the world! Low level? My code is fast . High level? My code is *expressive. Is this normal or is it just me? Don't you…
I feel likewise (except for the Perl part. I have the most fun working with PLT-Racket tools).
I believe this happens because language design involves a lot of trade-offs, so every language incorporates these trade-offs.
When one is comfortable in many kinds of languages, one is in a special position to see the trade-offs in the design of the language one is currently programming it.
The way I see it is slightly different then the way you describe. Say I'm programming in Prolog, for instance. In the beginning, I'll be like "Wow, such expressiveness". But inevitably I'll do something that is outside the scope of Prolog and it will be as slow as hell. That's when I think to myself: "if I could just fix this little part... I miss C". So when I'm back programming in C I'll think "now my code is fast", but then inevitably: "if I could just find a way to do this without so much repetition".
In the end, it comes down as a "right tool for the job" thing. One possible ideal would be do the things Prolog is good at in Prolog, the things C is good at in C (and also throw in some Python, Erlang, Lisp, etc). Except most of the time this is infeasible. Working with FFIs suck. Sometimes there are no FFIs, sometimes there are many incompatible ones, and the dream of calling any language from any language is just further and further apart. And don't get me started on the pain that it is to have multiple runtimes with slightly different semantics...
Even if it were possible, a developer would have to learn all these little languages enough to be working on them comfortably, and we all know this is not going to happen. So hardly anybody does this, as hiring someone for a polyglot project is a complete nightmare.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#78I see a lot of votes for python, but a disproportionately small representation of python fans in the comments.
If you asked me a year ago, I'dve said python. But lately, I've been using Clojure for personal projects, and it's making python seem just... boring. (I get the same feeling when I write in Ruby too)
The "one right way" paradigm is a great one, and the language is solid. The built-ins are top-notch, and while not exactly a functional language, it's certainly expressive enough. In my mind, it's probably the ideal general-purpose language. But lately, I feel like I use it for everything because it's "good enough" for everything -- without being "great" at anything.
Point? I don't think I had one, sorry. I just thought I'd share that notion to see if it resonated.
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#79It's slightly depressing when a poll about favorite languages has 30+ options and your choice isn't there :-(
+1 Groovy!
Re: Poll: What's Your Favorite Programming Language?
#80Mathematica. But not because of the language - it has some warts. But because of the problems I'm working on when I choose Mathematica as a tool.
Nice try Stephen.
What makes me really happy is when I'm working on something new. Particularly science. Some sort of new kind of science.