Re: True faiths ( was Re: The true faith )

[Steven T Abell <abell@brising.com>]

israel r t wrote:
> This seems to be typical of most marginal communities.
> I have seen variants of the  argument  "substance will eventually win
> " in the smalltalk, ada, eiffel, os2 and sgi communities.
> It seems improbable that every marginalised language is going to win.
> 
> Lisp, Ada , Eiffel and Smalltalk are all excellent languages, far
> superior to the Gang of Three ( Java, C++ , C ).
> 
> Yet, if Kent is right, they may have all been " rejected ...  for
> substantial reasons and not just superficial ones."
> 
> Will we all end up like the Moonies , convinced that our faith is the
> One True Faith while the rest of the world moves on ?

I have not done Ada or Eiffel,
have done Smalltalk and Lisp,
used to teach Smalltalk.

I think the reason is mindshare,
which unfortunately looks pretty relevant to a hiring manager.

Not very many people can use these languages well.
It's true that two or three people who can use them well
can outproduce a whole roomful of very competent C/C++/Java guys.
But a manager is highly influenced by the Truck Effect:
if one of your exotic wonderboys goes away for any reason,
he can be very hard to replace.
Furthermore, the loss of one of these
is equivalent to the loss of a whole team of C/C++/Java guys.
Yes, I know the time/cost tradeoffs,
but most managers don't want to hear the facts on this issue,
they just want to know if they can hire someone off the street,
and street people don't do Smalltalk.

I'm doing C++ right now,
and I'm painfully aware of just how unproductive this thing is.
But my client believes that I can be replaced if I go splat,
and that belief helps them get through the day.
Underneath it all,
my work is informed by my Smalltalk and Lisp experience
in ways that your average C/C++/Java guy just doesn't get,
and my client understands that I know something they don't.

I would love to be able to do Smalltalk all day long.
I would hate to go through life with the outlook of a C guy.
It's hard, but I try to be content,
and I go home and work on learning APL.
For those of us who actually have to produce things,
it's what you feed your brain that's relevant,
and C and its children are not enough.

Steve
--
Steven T Abell
Software Designer
http://www.brising.com

In software, nothing is more concrete than a good abstraction.