Re:Ask HN: Language Focus
by seanmcdirmid on Saturday August 03, 2013 @07:55AM
(#6151845)
Ruby/Perl/Python...which one out of the three doesn't belong? I mean, Ruby and Python are definitely comparable, but Perl is meant for something else entirely.
>It's pretty rare that you can't solve a problem in one of them, even if when it's not the best tool for the job.
All of these (and most other) languages are Turing complete, so what does this even mean? I can solve any problem in assembly code also.
> Perl is meant for something else entirely.
No, in fact Perl/Ruby/Python are virtually identical in a technical sense. They're capable of, and intended for, exactly the same kinds of applications.
> All of these (and most other) languages are Turing complete, so what does this even mean
It's very obvious what it means, you're just being intentionally obtuse.
Perl fits in fine in terms of usage, and can do everything that you can do in the other two, and probably more. It's the employability of perl hackers vs python and Ruby programmers that suffers.
If you want to do Lisp I think Clojure is a really exciting option. It's modern and runs on the JVM, which is a big advantage for some people.
You can learn basic Javascript in a week, which is all you really need for most web development tasks. Most web apps are a sprinkle of Javascript, though that is not the case with every app.
Javascript, Ruby/Perl/Python, and Go are a pretty killer combo. You'll have trouble finding problems you can't solve with that set.