[tryitnow]

I like the intent of the post, but if what you say is true, I'm disappointed. This sort of information could be useful for newbies, but it seems like something that should be in a wiki, not just in an article where it's just one person's opinion.

Does anyone know a good example of a language comparison that is accessible to someone who is completely new to programming?

[gdp]

I'm sure many have tried, but language comparisons actually devolve into uselessness very quickly, because the things we can quantitatively measure and compare about languages are mostly not the things that people care about in practice. For example, I can tell you what classes of errors are possible in Javascript programs versus what errors are possible in Python programs versus what errors are possible in Haskell programs, but it doesn't really seem to affect peoples' language choices. Language comparisons tend to devolve very quickly into arguments about personal taste and little else. I wrote some thoughts on this subject a while ago: http://plsadventures.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-patterns-fo...

[gdp]

In fact, having re-read my own post from 2 years ago and found myself still agreeing with it, I find myself wanting to travel back in time to paste that link to the author of the linked article before he wrote it.