[PLUG-Devel] Interesting article about C++ vs Java vs Python vs Ruby

[Darrin Chandler]

randy at SPiNInternetMedia.com wrote:

>Great article!
>
>; )
>
>--- Gerard Snitselaar <snits at snitselaar.org> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Considering the recent discussion over on plug-discuss, I thought
>>people might be interested in this article.
>>
>>http://www.dmh2000.com/cjpr/index.shtml
>>    
>>

Yes, it was a nice article. I also liked the linked (Bruce Eckel 
http://www.mindview.net/WebLog/log-0025) article about strong vs. weak 
typed languages.

I cut my teeth on a strongly typed language (Turbo Pascal), and I always 
felt C came up short, and I've always felt the same about interpreted 
languages. C++ almost seemed like a punishment to programmers rather 
than a useful application of strong typing. But Eckel makes some very 
good points for weak typing. It'll be a while before it settles in 
completely, but I think my mind is changed.

Regarding the original article, I think the comparison is a bit shallow: 
it's very difficult to compare languages until you really grasp the 
idiom. A really good comparison would be to hand off the task to a C++ 
guru, a Python guru, a Java guru, and a Ruby guru, and then compare the 
results. These results are a bit like where MS looked at server 
performance of Windows/IIS/MSSQL vs. LAMP (they had a totally tweaked MS 
box and a stock Linux install). That said, the article was still 
worthwhile for me.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |