Before you think of being a do-gooder...

[Alex Beamish]

On 5/28/06, Peter <plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 28 May 2006, Walter Dnes wrote:
>
> > On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 10:56:40AM -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote
> >
> >> What's pathetic is that IT design, support and maintenance isn't really
> >> a profession, it isn't even up to the level of being a "trade". Of
> >> course, many IT vendors like things this way because accountability
> >> would expose them.
>
> ;-)
>
> >  A couple of points...
> >
> >  1) Unlike bricklaying, or carpentry, or metalworking, etc, there isn't
> > a century or two of publications and knowledge handed down from
> > generation to generation.  C and Java are two of the "oldest" languages
> > currently in major use for new development.  Stuff like Python, Ruby,
> > PHP is almost brand new.  How many "centuries of practice" are there for
> > these languages?
>
> Python and Ruby (and Perl and Tcl/Tk and C and most other 'common'
> languages) predate Java by at least 10 years ..

Huh? That doesn't sound right.

Python: 1990 [1]
Ruby: 1993 to 1995 [2]
Perl: 1987 [3]
Tcl: 1990 [4]
C: Early 1970's [5]

Java: Early 1990's [6]
JavaScript: 1995 [7]
PHP: 1995 [8]

For a language to predate Java by ten years, it would have to have
appeared in the early 1980's, by my reckoning. Only C falls into that
category.

> .. and before they became web
> scripting languages they spent some time in the hands of scientists and
> graduate students who took out some of the rougher edges, and many of
> the ugly bugs. Neither Java, nor Javascript had this polishing session,
> or the time. And it shows. Oh, and Php.

Well, JavaScript, never had 'rougher edges' taken out before being
used as a web scripting language, since it was written as part of the
Netscape browser [7].

In addition, I think scientists and graduate students are more likely
to use the tools that are available, rather than polish them .. unless
they're in the CS department, that is.

-- 
Alex Beamish
Toronto, Ontario

----------

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_language
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_language
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_programming_language
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_programming_language
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_programming_language
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP
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