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Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Switch Programming Languages?
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
I always see a lot of different opinions about programming languages, but how much choice do you really get to have over which language to use? If you want to develop for Android, then you're probably using Java...and if you're developing for iOS, then you've probably been using Swift or Objective-C. Even when looking for a job, all your most recent job experience is usually tied up in whatever language your current employer insisted on using. (Unless people are routinely getting hired to work on projects in an entirely different language than the one that they're using now...)
Maybe the question I really want to ask is how often do you really get to choose your programming languages... Does it happen when you're swayed by the available development environment or intrigued by the community's stellar reputation, or that buzz of excitement that keeps building up around one particular language? Or are programming languages just something that you eventually just fall into by default?
Leave your answers in the comments. How often do you switch programming languages?
Maybe the question I really want to ask is how often do you really get to choose your programming languages... Does it happen when you're swayed by the available development environment or intrigued by the community's stellar reputation, or that buzz of excitement that keeps building up around one particular language? Or are programming languages just something that you eventually just fall into by default?
Leave your answers in the comments. How often do you switch programming languages?
I'm going to go ahead and agree with you. I'm semi-retired. And while I still play with computers- the thought of going back into IT makes my stomach turn.
It's also true that the IT business has changed so much and is now driven by certifications and buzz-words rather than by talent or skill. Heck when I started working for a Fortune 100 in the mid 1990s I didn't even give out a resume. I had a *reputation*.
It was only after the housing crisis and economic meltdown that I needed a resume. Apparently, financial meltdowns make a persons over qualified or too expensive. One interview I went to had me seated with three other guys in a waiting room. I knew two of the guys- both of them thought if I was there that they would not get hired. But apparently the three of us were not hired- but rather the recent college grad we didn't know. He probably worked cheap and had the right certs.
But regarding what programming language- I'd use the lowest level one which pragmatically makes sense.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."