More Programming Languages, Please!

In defense of a world where we keep designing and using new programming languages.

I wrote my first line of code around 1990. The book that really got me into programming was called “Kids and the Amiga,” which I bought in 1992.

That means I was exposed to programming when Python was released in 1991. Definitely when Ruby and JavaScript were released in 1995. Java came out in 1996. C# appeared in 2002.

Why mention these years? Because I remember being around when a lot of this happened. I remember our discussions and our thoughts, and that is always useful when looking at the software industry today, because the same arguments and thinking tend to repeat over and over again every few years.

The book that really taught me programming back in 1992. I still have it on my bookshelf.

There has always been a reluctance and straight-out hostility towards new programming languages. However, I don’t think I have seen it quite as forcefully articulated lately as done by Kelly Curtis in a comment to one of my stories on Go programming.

It probably goes without saying that Kelly and I likely disagree on almost everything, but I must commend Kelly for setting the…