Programming In Interesting Times

Programming In Interesting Times 3.08 http://spkr8.com/t/1190

Russ Olsen 3.85

5 talks

Description:

For the first time in a very long time, programmers are again confronted by a very basic question: Which programming language should I use? The last few years have seen the emergence of a whole variety of programming languages, everything from Ruby and Scala to a renewed interest in Python and LISP. Why is this happening now? What makes one programming language successful and another a footnote? And what does all this mean to engineers who just want to hit next week's deadline?

Comments on this Talk

mr.david, 15 Jun 02:09 AM

I enjoyed the talk. I don't mind that Russ and I have different ideas about what is interesting in programming languages. My suggestions are:

(A) consider a broader variety of factors when comparing programming languages. A couple of examples: (1) the promise of the language itself compared/contrasted with implementations of the language. (2) perhaps talk about programming paradigms in a little more depth.

(B) Maybe I missed it, but it would be nice to see some sort of visual or tabular summary of the languages that were talked about. Maybe a scorecard is too simplistic, but it would be useful nonetheless

Russ Olsen, 15 Jun 04:14 PM

David,

Hey thanks for the comment. You know, I'm not sure we really disagree so much as we are talking about different things. I think you focus is on what makes a language good, useful, powerful etc. While I was talking about that in part, my main focus is what makes a programming language popular, which is a very different thing.

Anyway, thanks for coming to the talk and for the good suggestions.

Russ