[CLUE-Talk] On hackers, productivity, and languages

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 07-31 13:00, G. Richard Raab wrote:
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> On Saturday 31 July 2004 12:39 pm, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
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> > > I also liked the idea that variation in wealth, productivity are not
> > > inherently evil as some like to suggest.   Jucy for debate, IMHO.
> >
> > This posting by Paul Graham has lit up the Java blogging community like a
> > Christmas tree...mostly folks irritated at Graham for doing the all too
> > often "my language can beat up your language" thing. I think "real" hackers
> > use the toolset that is appropriate for the job at hand. You can feel l33t
> > all you want, but even bright people have to admit that sometimes something
> > as lowly as VB/Access is right for some jobs under the right circumstances,
> > IMHO. Asserting that there is One True Language for all tasks is venturing
> > into I-have-a-hammer-and-everything-looks-like-a-nail territory. For
> > humorous reading:
> 
> vb/access right for a job ? 
> for what job?
> 
> The only advantage that it has is being heavily used on a bad platform.
> It is not simple to use. 
> It is not easy to maintain.
> It needs to die.

I agree. It actually made my gorge rising writing that. However. There are
circumstances where it makes sense to use it. For example, you walk in as a
contractor to an outfit heavily invested in it. You could go the l33t hax0r
way and say "all illegitimate platforms & tools must die" - and not continue
the gig, or you could work with what they have.

I cannot think of many examples where I would want to *start* a new project
with one of the above - VB perhaps a few years ago when you were making a
smallish app that would only be on the Windows platform. For what it does,
VB isn't half bad...and for years, I was a PB guy. I was always getting
people asking me why I didn't use VB instead of PB. PB filled a very nice
niche of client/server apps - DB & OOP far outstripped VB's offerings at the
time.  But again, for small apps that only need be in the Windows world,
only Delphi came close for interop with 3rd party tools, quickness, etc. And
that's coming from someone who generally loathes VB. 

In the real world, I find you cannot be so rigid. Wishing it would die won't
make it so....server-side Win32, anyone? I honestly think that's a stupid &
reckless business decision of the highest order...but it isn't going away
any time soon. 



BTW, I found the book _In Search of Stupidity_ a breath of fresh air when it
came to a take on MS. He points out that folks in general don't have the
same fear & loathing of MS that folks in the biz do. I highly recommend the
book. I know some sections made me feel like I should take a shower after
reading them, but it doesn't mean some of it is not true...if I wanted to
just reaffirm my own opinions, I could hop onto Slashdot and read all the
anti-MS stuff on there.

I also found Pragmatic Programmer's recommendation to try to learn a new
language every year to be a really good idea. 

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at comcast.net  
If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of 
fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. 
-Herodotus 
(contributed by Chris Johnston)