Ack, I kinda wanted to stay outta this, but I feel compelled to make a point.
Having been both a candidate and a hiring authority, there are a lot of companies, ones that are really good to work for, that don't give a toss about specific languages. No one on my current team knew the main language and framework that we're using for our product, at any given time only half of the team has more than a basic understanding of the languages used in secondary utilities for that project. The "old guys" handle the C/C++ wrappers, the "web guy" helps us with JS and HTML, a few of us do pretty good with Java, and all of us know Ruby and Rails with varying expertise on Models, Views, and Controllers within that framework. I see the need for having experts in Language X or System Y. However, having an employee that has a demonstrable ability to learn new languages and tools and can *apply sound software development principles* using those languages can often outweigh an expert a given subset. Thats not to say that an expert won't get a fair shot, but they're going to have to prove that they can adapt that expertise to new languages. Sometimes the preferred language is not the best option to get the job done. When starting out with either new students or a new project, a language that offers a lower barrier of entry is a boon. For students, assembly or C may get them into the depths of a computer system, but it sets the bar very high while Python or Ruby can help them work through the higher level basics so that they get the most out of lower level languages in advanced courses. At a "real job", getting the concepts and basic aspects of an application sorted out quickly and making it work for 10 users is a good first step to creating an application that will serve 10 million users even if the final product is done on a different language. I guess the short version of my argument is: Its not about languages, its about software development. There are many tools that can all build software equally well as long as the author has the ability to design the software and apply those tools correctly. On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Nemo Nihil <[email protected]> wrote: > Rob Ludwick wrote: > >> Give me a more politically correct term then. I just chose 'fringe' for >>> lack of more descriptive terms. >>> >> >> I like using the term "Python" for describing Python. ;) >> > > I actually like calling it 'not listed as a requirement by many employers'. > That's really the main part of my argument, too. In my last search for > software engineering positions I saw the following languages repeated over > and over (roughly in order from most requested to least): Java, C/C++ > (listed together), PHP & javascript (usually listed together), perl, ADA > > Not a single mention of python, tcl, or ruby, though those seem fairly > common in the freelance open source community. Sadly, since the industry > seems to want people proficient in java more than anything, I'm probably > going to have to learn it eventually, even though I find the thought of OOP > everywhere extremely repulsive. > > -- ----- Jonathan Bartels
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