I am seeing a number of different posts about “Blub” – the programming language that you are most comfortable with, that blinds you to the power in other languages.
Which is more powerful? A Maserati, a Fire Truck, a Hummer or a Segway?
Well, it depends on what you want to do with them. Fighting fires with a Maserati would be quite hard, but touring a boardwalk in a fire truck would be a sight to behold indeed.
I’m very much enjoying the work I’m doing with Ruby On Rails, and I find it quite powerful for the purpose of building web apps. But I have a big project coming up, and Ruby On Rails isn’t even a contender for it. Languages are a means to solving a problem. The word “Powerful” crosses more categories than just objects, closures and MapReduce.
prompt the master into a discussion, Anton said “Master, I have heard that
objects are a very good thing – is this true?” Qc Na looked pityingly at
his student and replied, “Foolish pupil – objects are merely a poor man’s
closures.”
Chastised, Anton took his leave from his master and returned to his cell,
intent on studying closures. He carefully read the entire “Lambda: The
Ultimate…” series of papers and its cousins, and implemented a small
Scheme interpreter with a closure-based object system. He learned much, and
looked forward to informing his master of his progress.
On his next walk with Qc Na, Anton attempted to impress his master by
saying “Master, I have diligently studied the matter, and now understand
that objects are truly a poor man’s closures.” Qc Na responded by hitting
Anton with his stick, saying “When will you learn? Closures are a poor man’s
object.” At that moment, Anton became enlightened.
In praise of informed choices
Comment by Reg Braithwaite — October 16, 2006 @ 2:09 am
[...] At the risk of starting a resonance cascade, I feel obliged to comment on Reg’s followup to my followup to his article discussing Blub. I think he’s right – there are certainly people who seem to use the same language for everything, and they are probably programming in Blub. And since I can’t do hardly anything without using humor, I will post these in classic Jeff Foxworthy style: [...]
Pingback by Indefinite Articles » You might be a “Blub” programmer… — October 16, 2006 @ 1:45 pm