Thread: Which programming languages do you use?

Lol, ruby on rails definetely is "in" alright. I couldn't be bothered looking into it, PHP suits me fine, why would I change.

Mostly Python (either with self-written light framework under mod_python, or with Django), Common Lisp with tbnl (shame on you, you left it out ), or Ruby on Rails. In the past I have also used PHP (so horrible I can barely conceal my loathing), ASP (ditto, more or less), Struts (a Java/JSP MVC framework; not bad) and ASP.NET (also not bad). Also perl (and C!) cgi, years and years ago.

The website I'm currently making money out of, sadly, is a PHP nightmare I wrote a few years ago. I keep meaning to port it to python.

Why the fascination with python?

http://python.ie/blackmagic/

First-class functions, duck typing, and so on. It's a nice language; I'd recommend anyone currently using PHP or ASP to at least give it a go.

Originally Posted by rsynnott

In the past I have also used PHP (so horrible I can barely conceal my loathing),

What do you think is wrong with it? I think it's grand, real easy to learn.

Hmm. First of all, it's possible for people to learn just enough to hang themselves in it without actually learning to program. Minor point.

Weak typing. So, for instance, 1=='1' evaluates to true. Which is silly. - Big problem

No namespaces (and apparently may not even be added for php6) - big problem

No error on using undeclared variables. So if you type $cat where you meant to type $can, it won't, by default, warn. - big problem

Built-in functions are a complete basket-case, with multiple functions for doing the same thing, inconsistent naming, inconsistent argument orders, etc - big problem

magic_quotes and register_globals - silliness. (though neither are now default)

Extremely weird scoping.

No proper unicode.

No real arrays.

Ugly.

I could go on.

Originally Posted by rsynnott

Hmm. First of all, it's possible for people to learn just enough to hang themselves in it without actually learning to program. Minor point.

whats wrong with that, all you want is for people to be able to get things done

Weak typing. So, for instance, 1=='1' evaluates to true. Which is silly. - Big problem

No error on using undeclared variables. So if you type $cat where you meant to type $can, it won't, by default, warn. - big problem

Built-in functions are a complete basket-case, with multiple functions for doing the same thing, inconsistent naming, inconsistent argument orders, etc - big problem

magic_quotes and register_globals - silliness. (though neither are now default)

agree with the points quoted there, dont understand the rest!

Originally Posted by georgiecasey

whats wrong with that, all you want is for people to be able to get things done

No, not at all. There are a lot of people who know just enough PHP to cause a lot of damage. The barrier for entry is too low.

Originally Posted by rsynnott

No, not at all. There are a lot of people who know just enough PHP to cause a lot of damage. The barrier for entry is too low.

Which is why phpn / mysql apps are such a security nightmare ....