
If programming languages were religions... - cygwin98
http://www.itu.dk/courses/BPRD/E2010/religion.txt
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knowtheory
Haskell should be listed as Confucianism.

It is an orderly society built on a tight system of rules which delineate the
role of each thing and its respective place in the cosmos. People think that
the rules are confusing and legalistic, but great societies can be built atop
it and it's foundations.

~~~
asolove
And it only allows for certain specific types of changes in social status.

~~~
thesz
Most of the time _correct types_ of changes.

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nicetryguy
Actionscript / Adobe would be jehovas witnesses. Its annoying, but prevalent
and always at your door 'would you like to talk about updates? I have this
great Flash video...'

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drKarl
See

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=399699>

and

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1944876>

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knowtheory
Ruby's wrong too. The description of Ruby says nothing about either it's
society or it's strengths (or weaknesses) as a language. Being popular isn't a
language or cultural feature.

I'm not sure where to place it still. Ruby's been called SmallTalk for the
Unix VM. But then i'm not sure where to put SmallTalk either. Ruby's a
language about aestheticism and ease of development. SmallTalk is a language
about robust minimal APIs accomplished through message passing and tracking
the state of the universe. Given that every smalltalk program is a VM unto
itself, there's something about multiverse semantics there somewhere. Which is
akin to Mahayana Buddhism.

Actually that's it.

Lisp should be Taoism. It's about the raw expressive power of the universe as
it flows around us. It's also very confusing to non-believers, and even to
believers, there's a lot of infighting and disagreement. Lispers seem very
happy when alone.

Then, Smalltalk is mainline Mahayana Buddhism. All adherents are promised that
they will become the Buddha of their own personal domain upon reaching
Enlightenment. Experience is the only thing that is real, and the true nature
of the universe is ephemeral and ever changing (via duck typing, monkey
patching and message passing). Those who get lost in samsara are doomed to
keep repeating their mistakes (MONKEY PATCH WITH CARE).

Ruby is Zen Buddhism. Ruby holds all the same tenets as Smalltalk, but is much
more considerate of aesthetics and formalization by a rigorous, perhaps rigid
society. It made its way to the US and is understood as something totally
different in North America, with different leaders and and focus. It is wildly
popular among Californians.

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sradnidge
Not sure about the jab at Microsoft, C# is just an implementation of an ECMA
standard ([http://www.ecma-
international.org/publications/standards/Ecm...](http://www.ecma-
international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm)) and as if Java isn't
unduly influenced by The Red Menace these days.

Perl is spot on though :)

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sampsonjs
Lisp and Haskell programmers would both worship the lambda. Instead of making
the sign of the cross they would draw the sign of the lambda across their
chest to show reverence..

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anr
If? Programming languages are one of the most religious prone components of
the geek ecosystem.

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zachrose
Logo is what little kids make up for themselves when nobody tells them
anything different.

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smh5804
VB is not a religion, it is an atheism: no strict rules, nothing to be afraid
of, it is very forgiving. Anyone who is lazy enough to be a follower of an
organized structural system, can claim to be an expert in VB.

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cao825
It was good until I realized it was just a drawn out rip on VB...

