2016-05-28 - Every Programming Language is Alright

I love programming languages. I want to learn as many programming languages as I can. I find all the differences between languages to be fascinating. The way two similar languages choose to focus on different things. The different way languages solve the same problem. While reading about programming languages I sometimes come across very general comparisons. Language Y is better than Language X. Language Y sucks, use Language Z instead. These kind of statements bug me because they miss the point of why multiple languages exist.

There are very few accidental languages. No one has ever been bashing their keyboard and went "Woops, I made a compiler" or "Damn, I inadvertently wrote a language specification". These things are difficult and very complex so people only put the time and effort into making them if they actually want them to exist for some reason. Languages also only become popular if people want to use them for some reason. It's those reasons which are the key.

If you look at why different programming languages exist you will often find that their creators wanted to solve a particular type of problem and felt that the existing languages weren't suitable for doing so. C was created to make it easier to develop operating systems. Basic was designed to make it easier for non-mathematicians to program. The multitude of web frameworks exist to try and find an easy way of making web applications. The problem that a language was created to solve should be the focus of most comparisons.

Language Y is better at solving A Problems than Language X. Language Y sucks at solving B Problems, use Language Z instead. There are no languages that are good at solving all problems and there are no languages that aren't good at solving any problems. By giving context to the comparison it becomes less general and more specific.