Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to code in?

Ruby

Language are not just tools. A tool has a specific purpose like Excel is a tool, hammer is a tool. Do you create only "Text editor" using programming language OR only "Database systems"? No, you create various kind of other tools using programming language and hence it is a kind of meta tool and thats why it matters a lot. A language is a kind of cognitive model for you to think about and build other tools. "You can make a masterpiece in any programming language" : Sure you can (make be you will take year's in the effort), but you need to consider the cognitive load it will have.

> I tend to feel "comfortable" coding things with PHP but hate the fact it's one of the poorest languages to have in the toolkit.

Well, then you've already lost, because you're accepting what the herd is telling you without any form of critical insight.

Enjoy wasting the next five years chasing fads.

Quoting "Beating the Averages" written by the creator of the community you're ostensibly participating in, emphasis mine because I know reading is hard:

Blub programmer wouldn't use either of them. Of course he wouldn't program in machine language. That's what compilers are for...

As long as our hypothetical Blub programmer is looking down the power continuum, he knows he's looking down.

Languages less powerful than Blub are obviously less powerful, because they're missing some feature he's used to. But when our hypothetical Blub programmer looks in the other direction, up the power continuum, he doesn't realize he's looking up.

What he sees are merely weird languages. He probably considers them about equivalent in power to Blub, but with all this other hairy stuff thrown in as well. Blub is good enough for him, because he thinks in Blub.

When we switch to the point of view of a programmer using any of the languages higher up the power continuum, however, we find that he in turn looks down upon Blub. How can you get anything done in Blub? It doesn't even have y.

By induction, the only programmers in a position to see all the differences in power between the various languages are those who understand the most powerful one. (This is probably what Eric Raymond meant about Lisp making you a better programmer.) You can't trust the opinions of the others, because of the Blub paradox: they're satisfied with whatever language they happen to use, because it dictates the way they think about programs.

Edit:

Your crab-in-a-bucket mentality will not be welcomed warmly here. You might consider encouraging other people to learn new things instead of being a sour asshole to somebody asking the community for advice.

Please go back to lurking.

JavaScript