Re: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?"

First off, Their List is not at all a measure of language supportability, or anything more than:

an indication of the popularity of programming languages.

So how do they measure this? Well:

The ratings are based on the world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors.

This has massively favours corporate-backed languages (note Java's at the top). They judge "skilled engineers" by people that are certified. How many people here are "Perl Certified?" now compare that to how many people here are "skilled engineers." See where I'm going? Having a corporation backing a language is very, very different than having it be well supported.

Perl is infinitely better supported than Java. Why? Because it's open. If Sun goes bankrupt or gets in extremely bad financial position and starts looking for any possible source of revenue, Java's in trouble, big trouble. I trust Sun as far as I can throw a Sun Fire 15k server, which isn't far. Perl doesn't have this problem (neither do a whole bunch of other languages mind you).

Comment on Re: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?"

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Re2: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?" by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Apr 02, 2003 at 00:09 UTC
I trust Sun as far as I can throw a Sun Fire 15k server, which isn't far. Your throwing style must be askew. Those things don't weigh more than 50 or 60 pounds. All you have to do is get it balanced over one shoulder and use your hips in a twisty-type motion. I bet you could easily chuck one of them a good 10-12 feet. :-) ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age. Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement. Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.	[reply]
Re: Re2: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?" by Anonymous Monk on Apr 02, 2003 at 00:16 UTC
Unless your name is Magnus you're not going to be able to do it. Weight varies based on configuration, but keep in mind A fully loaded Sun Fire 15K system cabinet weighs 2,467.8 lbs.	[reply]
Re: Re2: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?" by Anonymous Monk on Apr 02, 2003 at 00:11 UTC
Cool, mine's in the shop. Can I borrow yours? ;-D	[reply]
Re: Re2: "Are You Working With Endangered Languages?" by hsmyers (Canon) on Apr 02, 2003 at 19:30 UTC
As an alternative, see Caber, tossing... --hsm "Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."	[reply]