1 Comment.

Comment 6 Oct 2007^ at 10:45 UTC

Mmm, the usual: tools are good, better tools are better, but the bottom line is how you, the programmer, think! If you're not aligned with the tools' underlying concepts, you will experience deep and perhaps show-stopping conflicts, needless workarounds, and all manner of frustration.

Personally, I've done most recent (aka Web-) programming in Perl. Not elegant, but it's remarkable what crafty features can be realized in a screenful of code. I've occasionally had to delve into PHP, mostly to debug or adjust something, and PHP is so contrary to my way of conceptualizing and coding that I shudder. Also, PHP applications are HUGE, hundreds, even thousands of files.

I can't think PHP; hence I don't code it. I like Ruby, appreciate Rails (but agree, after trying it for a few small tests, that it does enforce a particular way of thinking). On the other hand, Rails is intended for standard-mass-production kind of development environments. Good for consistency, less conducive for individual "creativity" coding. – Bo Leuf

(correlates: LeonidSightings, ZhurnalyWiki Software Update 2008, YearInIdeas2005, ...)</div>