Re:The myth of using Scala as a better Java
by pron on Thursday March 02, 2017 @04:27AM
(#13772804)
> unless you write entire applications in assembler, you DO care about programming languages.
That's true, but we've been in the region of diminishing returns for programming languages (I'm not talking about runtimes) for a long, long time now. To go back to the (bad?) tools metaphor, it's like saying that unless you're using nothing but your fingers, you DO care about tools. Well, yeah, but once you have a decent screwdriver, innovation in screwdriver technology -- short of a revolution -- is likely to yield diminishing returns on investment, especially as the cost of adoption remains high. Switching from, say, Java to Scala is not much cheaper (if at all) than switching from, say, assmebly language to FORTRAN or C. This does mean that the effort spent on switching languages (or screwdrivers) should decline.
That's true, but we've been in the region of diminishing returns for programming languages (I'm not talking about runtimes) for a long, long time now. To go back to the (bad?) tools metaphor, it's like saying that unless you're using nothing but your fingers, you DO care about tools. Well, yeah, but once you have a decent screwdriver, innovation in screwdriver technology -- short of a revolution -- is likely to yield diminishing returns on investment, especially as the cost of adoption remains high. Switching from, say, Java to Scala is not much cheaper (if at all) than switching from, say, assmebly language to FORTRAN or C. This does mean that the effort spent on switching languages (or screwdrivers) should decline.