I know, it sounds weird. I was thinking about this in a meeting today. My workplace (local government) is going online with it's jury selection system, and if you're selected, you can log in to a site and fill out the questionairre they normally give to you in the mail.

Anyway, this project is being coded in Java, which accesses an Oracle Dbase which really points to a bunch of records on a Clearpath Mainframe. Anyway, we have these meetings to sit through were we watch the developer code every nuance of the thing, and while he's busy messing with stupid little things like converting numbers to strings, then back again, I get this kind of correlation, which is admittedly biased and coming from a guy's perspective (so ladies, C and Java programmers, don't be offended).

If programming languages were like alcohol, C would be regular, good old domestic(US) beer. It doesn't exactly taste good (at first, anyway), but it's manly (the bragging rights that come with low-level programming) and it get's the job done.

Java is the import beer. This is for the techie who wants to be slightly more 'with it', as object-oriented is a buzz word and Java is 100% object-oriented. A couple of bells and whistles are thrown in so it isn't just normal beer. But what would happen if we switched these programmers' Java with C++? We set up a hidden camera to find out...

Now comes Perl, the mixed drink. It's electric blue, comes in a huge cup with peices of fruit and an umbrella in it. Looks pretty girly, huh? Well, it's easy going down (easy to work with), packs a mean punch that you wouldn't suspect, and only those comfortable with their masculinity (or programming skill) would dare drink one at a crowded club. Did I mention that people at work make fun of Perl?

So there you have it. I hope this doesn't get flamed...

Cheers,
Derek