September
2006
Afraid of choosing the right language0
Got to admit it, I’m a language coward. 3 times in a row I have chickened out and didn’t go with the programming language I knew was the right one for the job. Even though my recommendation would probably be accepted. And it gets better – once it was in my company, where I was the CTO (and founder). What a wimp.
It occurred to me after reading Yegge’s interesting but long post (aren’t they all) of his now (or was it then) favorite programming language. I, just like him, was and still am, on a holy-grail quest of finding the ultimate programming language. Elegant, efficient, with lots of libraries and easy FFI, concise, extensible and multi-paradigm. And guess what? I’ve found it, only to discover that even I can’t stand behind it and advocate it to my fellow (or subordinate) developers. After all, who enjoys these “not another crazy idea” look in their eyes. Just like with any leader/follower situation, the leader’s biggest fear is to lose his followers. And how easy that is when you come with this fancy, academic language which nobody really uses and will look plainly odd on their resumes. Does it really matter it implies a better programming experience? Probably not.
Ah, wonder what was that language? Well it wasn’t any language in particular although more than anything it was Scheme. And oddly, scheme is pretty familiar to many people much more so than the arcane OCaml or Erlang.
Will I ever be manly enough to do the right thing? Sometime I get carried away in dreams of an Utopian programming position when I will be expected to make bold decisions and will be given enough room to go with what I feel is right. Sounds too good? Well, doesn’t that sound like a research position? And if so, will choosing the right language is limited to research and out of scope for what is considered to be real-world? Probably and sadly, yes.