Why do developers choose one programming language over another for a given task?<\/P>
Sometimes I choose raw C when I need blazing speed.<\/P>
When I want something that will run on Windows with as small a distribution as possible, I often choose C++ with MFC statically linked.<\/P>
When we need a GUI that will run on Mac, Windows, and Linux, a common choice is Java (although the GUI will not be perfect, it will work.)<\/P>
For rapid GUI development and really smooth UIs, I like Visual Basic, but I know that I’m going to have to pay the price in the size of the distributable and the fact that I’ll be locked into Windows.<\/P>
For a command-line tool that must run on any UNIX machine and doesn’t need to be fast, perl is a good choice.<\/P>
If you have to run inside a web browser, JavaScript is the really the only choice. In a SQL stored procedure, you usually get to choose between one vendor’s proprietary SQL derivative or go home.<\/P>
What’s the Point?<\/STRONG><\/P> But I hardly ever choose a language based on syntax. Yeah, I prefer the {}; languages (C\/C++\/C#\/Java). And I have lots of opinions as to what makes a “good” syntax. But I wouldn’t accept a 20 MB runtime just to get semicolons.<\/P> Which makes me wonder a bit about .NET’s cross-language strategy. The idea is, choose any language you want, there are zillions, and they all work the same way.<\/P> VB.NET and C#.NET are virtually identical except for tiny syntactic differences. And other languages that want to be part of the .NET world need to support at least a core set of features and types or they won’t be able to Play Well With Others. But how do I develop a UNIX command line utility in .NET? How do I develop a tiny Windows EXE in less than 16K in .NET?<\/P> It seems like .NET gives us a “choice” of languages precisely where we couldn’t care less about it — in the syntax.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"