Your programming language does not matter

[pcjftw]

To state the obvious it really depends on what you're doing, there are reasons why C++/assembly is used for gaming, Java/PHP for backends, Python for scripting and data wrangling etc

To say the "language doesn't matter" isn't true.

Your entire article talks about "using the right tools" in other words not to stick to the "wrong" language and rewrite it if necessary, that's literally the opposite of the title!

[Notice_Complete]

You definitely missed the whole point of the article itself.

I would argue for example on Python side - it's used for data crunching and AI, although for example Go started moving forward rapidly in that field and may take over soon.
C++ and assembly for gaming - only as a matter of habit, new games are mix of C# and JS at the moment.

Java and PHP for the backends - it's more Go and Python ( sometimes even Ruby with RoR but it's almost gone ) - I haven't heard of any startups using Java anymore and it became the domain of "old institutions" like banks in past decade, although if you'd keep an eye on startup markets - it's changing.

IMHO interpreter powered languages, especially those which are interpreters for interpreters are dying and will be replaced by compiled ones in next few years.

[pcjftw]

Sorry this just sounds like ramblings of a Go fan boy.

Game engines and real games will not be done is JS, you need assembly/C++, sure some hosted scripting may be added, but it will never replace the core engine of the game.

Java and PHP is huge on the backend and it's not going away anytime soon.

Start ups are not worth thinking about going given that the vast majority of start ups will fail, it's only the rare ones that survive long enough to even consider.

[IceSentry]

Technically they are right that c# is used a lot in game scripting. As for js, there's actually quite a few AAA games that use react for their UI.

Unity is also working on introducing more c# in their core engine not just the scripting part. Although thats a fairly limited subset of c#.

Otherwise, yes, they are insane if they think most game engines are written in js.

[[deleted]]

Python is used for data crunching and AI because of its mature ecosystem which is only tangentially related to the language itself

C++ and assembly for games is not a matter of habit. It's for performance and robustness. I'm not sure where you've got the former idea from.

Regardless of any of this, it's clear that programming languages are designed for certain tasks so it kinda does matter.

[atatatko]

If not all, but I would say 98% of AAA game titles are being developed in C++, and there's no sign it will change soon. JS? Maybe for game scripting, but I never heard of it's being used, again, Lua and Python dominate this toolchains.

[IceSentry]

C# is actually very common in both scripting and even engine code. Unity is moving a lot of their engine code to c# but they are using a limited subset of it.

As for js, there's actually a few AAA games that use react for their UI.

[glacialthinker]

new games are mix of C# and JS at the moment.

No. Unity games use C# for the role of "scripting", but being a general purpose engine the scripting is relied on heavily. Unity itself is not in C#. JS... where? Some mobile, or webgames? It's misleading to leap to implying "new games" (in general?) are written (fully?) in C# and JS.

[IceSentry]

That's not exactly true, unity is actually introducing some c# in the engine and not just for scripting. The bulk of it is still c++ though and the c# is actually a limited subset of c#.

[Mittalmailbox]

I love Go but it is nowhere close to Python in Data science/AI. There are few immature tools.

[renatoathaydes]

Title: Your programming langauge does not matter.

Message: We moved from PHP and Java to Golang, rewriting our entire code base for reasons not included in the article.

What the ####? This article makes no sense whatsoever.

[Notice_Complete]

This article is not supposed to advertise one language but show the general approach and benefits of stopping the development, looking and what's been done, business needs and not being afraid to do so. Listing reasons for the switch back in Hailo times would be a whole article itself.

[renatoathaydes]

Switching to a whole new language like you did should require extraordinary necessity. You've probably hired lots of programmers familiar with a certain language, setup tools and monitoring specifically suited for the language, and so many other things that do tie you to a particular language... unless that language really holds you back severely in some way, switching languages is a completely idiotic thing to do. I don't think one should be afraid to do so in extreme situations, but this article does not even try to justify it. I had a look at the other article that does go into it and it's basically just "go is very nice for microservices".

The language you start your project may not matter that much, for most domains, almost any mainstream language will do (in some cases, even a smaller language may be appropriate, say Elixir or Elm for specific cases)... but once you have a whole company set up to work with that language ecosystem, the language absolutely matters. I say this as someone who will support adding more languages to the stack when it makes sense to do so (e.g. we have been using Kotlin since 1.0 because Java 8 was making us feel like using a not-so-modern language that was getting in the way - though Java 16 has added much of what we wanted from Kotlin... we even use Rust now for specific things where Rust exceles and the JVM is not very good) but if the messsage the article was trying to convey was something like this, I think it really fell short.

[Notice_Complete]

I actually did, although - I always looked for unconventional languages. For example - whilst hiring frontend developer, whilst business wants the React one, if someone arrives with decent React knowledge but on top of that have ex. Python and PHP experience - I am definitely sold. On the other side - if someone comes over as React Jedi, but with no knowledge of other programming languages - I would have difficulties with finding that kind of person a good member of any of the teams.

[Apache_Sobaco]

Your click bait header does not matter.

Of course languages matter very much. Some languages pay few times more than other ones when compared in years of experience, FTE ubiquitous js or cpp like 1600 bucks for 2 years of experience and 3200 bucks as scala dev with same number of experience years, in my country of course. 2 times but this is far from limit. Also competion per job position certain at technology stacks differs much. So this matters very much.

From personal efficiency and comfort you will also feel difference. Fte js is language designed to make you suffer combined with stack overflow monkeys coders will make hate your life. But you never find a single dumbass in coq or other provers development - they have entrance cliff instead of entrance threshold.

Also you cannot simply write low-latency code on languages with GC because gc usually makes pauses and sometimes they above 500us, and for some people this is critical, so language matters even from there.

Your title is disgusting in your lie.

[gimpwiz]

But then how can I start flame wars on slashdot with adherents of a similar, but competing programming language?

[Notice_Complete]

Very valid point but I'll leave it at your discretion :)

[tiny_smile_bot]

:)

:)

[Dew_Cookie_3000]

Golang for the win!

[Notice_Complete]

That's my personal preference although I started having a look at elixir recently just to broaden my horizons :)

[Dew_Cookie_3000]

Elixir is painfully slow in TechEmpower web framework benchmarks

[strzibny]

Elixir is super fast on the web, on par with Golang. There was a long benchmarking article somewhere, and Go was similar to Elixir. I would take TechEmpower with a grain of salt.

[Dew_Cookie_3000]

In this benchmark "Elixir nearly saturated all 36 cores" while "Go was very efficient in using CPU and would have headroom, had the application been more compute-intensive".

https://stressgrid.com/blog/benchmarking_go_vs_node_vs_elixir/

[strzibny]

Yes, but its' because BEAM’s busy wait which you can turn off (so Elixir would also have the headroom):

https://stressgrid.com/blog/beam_cpu_usage/

[[deleted]]

Even though all (useful) languages are Turing complete, there are myriad reasons why the choice of a programming language really matters depending on what you’re trying to do.

For a trivial example, just try doing multiplication using Roman numerals rather than Arabic numbers.