[ale] Language Jihad!

[Leonard Thornton]

As someone who writes code for a living, MHO is that there is no universal 
language, no universal OS, no silver bullet...

(Apologies to all of the zealots out there...)

The right tool for the job depends on the job you are trying to accomplish 
and the customer environment you are delivering the product 
for.  PERIOD.  If you get locked into one language, one OS, one environment 
(any mainframe COBOL programmers out there???), you are doomed to go the 
way of the Dodo bird.  Be flexible, move fast, be open minded and ALWAYS BE 
LEARNING..

I personally use C, C++, Intel Assembly, Java, Perl, shell scripts, have 
done COBOL & RPG (yes, on IBM mainframes, God help me....) and even Visual 
Basic (ouch...).  I prefer C++, but that is a preference, not a 
preconception....

Your mileage may vary...see dealer for details....


At 11:50 AM 7/11/2001 -0400, Dow Hurst wrote:
>I have wanted to learn a programming language for a while now.  My
>thoughts were first with Perl for sysadmin.  Later, I thought I'd go
>with Python to get Object Oriented type code but still have the string
>manipulation capabilities.  Right now, Barnes and Noble has a C++ class
>online I am trying out.  Also, I discovered Ruby which has high praises
>for useability and versatility.  Tcl is interesting and people have
>praised Ada95 to me.  I am a bit confused over the whole "what is best"
>thing and believe that whatever will get the job done with the least
>fuss and bother is probably best.  I've bought books but until I get
>really fired up and believe I am on the "right" track, I just lose
>interest!
>
>I really had a laugh over the "Language Holy War" email replies over the
>html link sed regexp question by Christopher Bergeron!
><trying to clean up coffee spilled from hilarious laughter with pages
>from Solomon's "Organic Chemistry">
>
><I hated Organic Chemistry!>
>
>Can someone convince me which is the best all around language to use?
>Seems that C++ isn't so difficult but I really like Ruby and Perl for
>the simplicity of how much code you have to write to get something done.
>
>Of course, I really enjoy piping basic unix commands together such as:
>
>  grep -n 'chemical connectivity' inputfile |
>  awk -v FS=: '{print($1)}' |
>  xargs -i echo " -e '{},{} s/0X    4 /0X   11 /g' \"
>  >> output_sed_script.txt
>
>Now that was fun!!
>Dow
>
>--
>__________________________________________________________
>Dow Hurst                   Office: 770-499-3428
>Systems Support Specialist  Fax:    770-423-6744
>1000 Chastain Rd.
>Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
>Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
>Kennesaw, GA 30144
>***************************************
>*Computational Chemistry is hard work!*
>***************************************
>--
>To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message 
>body.

The difficult while you wait.....the impossible overnight.

Leonard Thornton
Intelis, Inc.
5960 Crooked Creek Rd
Suite 30
Norcross, GA  30092

Office: 770.825.0032
Fax:            770.825.0028
Cellular:       404.583.5402
Pager:          888.785.9188
Email:          Leonard at Intelis-Inc.net

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