Vote favorite programming langugae

[TheCPUWizard]

There are 1233 (today) at 99-bottles-of-beer. And counting...
http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/

Just imagine if we had a forum dedicated to each one....

And 5087 cases (24 bottle to a case) of beer to test each one!!!

[dglienna]

What? Like using the right tool for the job you mean? Not me! I've never seen the need for a screwdriver, I just hammer them in!

How does that work with your computers?

May you list some examples of "failures" in software due to choosing a less appropriate language? And perhaps how you think they could be avoided?

OS/2 comes to mind...

[TheCPUWizard]

OS/2 comes to mind...

OS/2 failed for market reasons and NOT technical reasons.

[aio]

VB (from DOS to version 6) is the only programming language available in our office. As a result that's the only language I learned and used. If it's my favorite, I don't know exactly.

I tried learning C++ and Turbo Pascal in the past, just enough for me to print "hello world" in any part of the screen I like -- and a little 'beyond'.

The choosing of favorites could have been a little easier if I have used C++ and Pascal so much where I have substantial points of comparison.

[exterminator]

Just as a note, the thing that amazes me is that so few "programmers" are even aware that there are the variety of languages available.

When looking to solve a problem (or meet a need - same thing), it is critical to have a good knowledge of many of these languages in order to make an informed decision as to which language would be best suited for a given task.

In my experience this is at least partly the basis for the frequent "failures" in software development projects.

So, do you like go on doing analysis of the project considering those 150+ languages every time you start a project. And how much time does that take?

Or may be even after analyzing those 150+ languages, some may feel that a new language needs to be developed in this case which will make it a great success. And then one is created. Of course, now you would need to analyze how much cost does it have comparatively.

I don't think language choice is that much of a cause of a failure. In fact, my career has been as short as 5 years, but I haven't seen a project fail due to that reason. Mostly they fail due to bad project managers, bad business analysts and requirement gathering, and sometimes poor knowledge of programmers (due to their inexperience or otherwise).

Mostly I have seen language choice as a organization standard, or atleast very quick selection based on other constraints or due to mandates.

[YourSurrogateGod]

Erlang + F#

[TheCPUWizard]

[QUOTE=exterminator;1782471]So, do you like go on doing analysis of the project considering those 150+ languages every time you start a project.
[quote]
Not all of them..many of them are "obsolete" and I do alot of migration of legacy systems [3 COBOL conversions in 2007]..

But I DO consider alternatives (often 3-5 different approaches). Some of the common ones:

Functional vs. Declarative vs. Imperitive
Custom ASP.NET vs. SharePoint
"Straight ASP.NET" vs. AJAX vs. Silverlight
BizTalk vs. WorkFlow vs. Discrete Programming
Windows Application vs. Service vs. Dedicated Processor (and that is a whole process in itself)
Managed vs. Native

And how much time does that take?

Typically only a few hours, but there are cases where the choice can involve a specific funded allocation.

Or may be even after analyzing those 150+ languages, some may feel that a new language needs to be developed in this case which will make it a great success. And then one is created. Of course, now you would need to analyze how much cost does it have comparatively.

That is definately true, a DSL (Domain Specific Language) can often be worth the investment. I have done these for Audio Processing, Pharmecutical, Legal and a few other projects

I don't think language choice is that much of a cause of a failure....Mostly I have seen language choice as a organization standard, or atleast very quick selection based on other constraints or due to mandates.

Much depends on what you consider a "failure". If an enterprise project costs $5 million to develop and support (this is fairly low) to provide an increase of $20 million (4x ROI) in bottom line, BUT could have been done for $4M or provided $24M (6x ROI if both) in benefits, I (and most corporate executives I have talks with at many companies) definately consider the project a failure to achieve optimal goals..

[toraj58]

my vote goes to C++
and LUA as a scripting Language

//also hints from TheCPUWizard are instructive.