

Ask HN: Evidence which settle the C/C++… vs Python/Lisp/Haskell… Deathmatch? - loup-vaillant

I am most interested in whether programs written in "high-level" languages have less errors. (Note that I am talking about errors that can go undetected, and are actually shipped). That's a disagreement between me and a colleague:<p>To me, a high-level language will yield simpler and shorter programs, and tend to remove some classes of errors.  That let your mind concentrate more on the problem, and less on unrelated details.  Therefore, your program tend to have less errors.<p>To my colleague, using a high level language makes you lazy.  By not exercising your mind regularly with trivial problems (such as indices in `for` loops), you tend to be less awake, if not a bit dumber.  And that effect at least nullifies the benefits of a shorter and simpler program (when it comes to count the errors).  In the end, your program does <i>not</i> have less errors.  It even tend to have more.<p>So empirical evidence would be nice.
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gaius
There's a bunch of this stuff on the web, e.g.:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:R2Xnn_v...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:R2Xnn_v-
krUJ:www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~as/fpcourse/jfp.ps+ada+vs+c+errors+per+loc&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a)

The short answer is, no-one in a position to decide languages really believes
the research, even when they've commissioned it themselves.

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smcl
> By not exercising your mind regularly with trivial problems (such as indices
> in `for` loops), you tend to be less awake, if not a bit dumber.

There's plenty of things to discuss in high vs low level languages,
but...laziness due to abstracting loop indexes out of the equation? Really?

~~~
loup-vaillant
Really. That sounds like a macho dinosaur, but my colleague seems to be
sincere. He didn't recall any specific anecdote, but his (reasonably long)
experience makes him confident he's right.

Either way, he won't be convinced by anything but strong evidence. And neither
will I. So we're kinda stuck.

~~~
cylinder714
You're not going to win outright, but if he's going to sling anecdotes, here's
some in favor of the Common Lisp side that might wear him down:

<http://wiki.alu.org/RtL%20Highlight%20Film>

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bediger
Here's one comparing Java and C++, and where Java wins:

[http://www.lanl.gov/projects/CartaBlanca/webdocs/PhippsPaper...](http://www.lanl.gov/projects/CartaBlanca/webdocs/PhippsPaperOnJavaEfficiency.pdf)

And there's always the Script-o-Meter:

[http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-
study/scripting-l...](http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-
study/scripting-language/)

