| > I'm not sure why choice of programming language is such a heated topic. I think there are two reasons. First, languages live or die by their ecosystems. If you love a language, it's very much in your interest for other people to use it, so they write code that you can use. Second, most programming happens at work. Most people don't get to choose what programming language they write at work: they're locked into whatever choice somebody else made. The more popular your language is, the more likely that choice is to be made in your favor (or alternatively, the easier it'll be to find a job where that choice has been made in your favor). If I want to write Idris at work, well, tough luck. Both of these are largely zero-sum, which makes things worse. It's not 100% zero-sum, in that if you manage to light a passion for <language> in somebody they might write code (in that language) that might not have been written at all. But mostly language evangelism won't change the total number of programming hours per year (or the number of available programming jobs), so all that's left is to fight over who gets how much. So if you care a lot about which programming language you write, I don't think it's odd to come at it from combative angle: it's a fight! Some will lose and some will win, so you better try and be one of the winners. |