
Node.js isn’t good enough - md365
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nodejs-isnt-good-enough-purvak-pathak
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drKarl
> True that with low level languages like C++, Java

This guy doesn't even know what he's talking about...

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oldandtired
I don't know about that. When you have to do casts to convert from one size of
integer to another size of integer, then you are talking about pretty low-
level stuff here.

Mind you, I still consider both C++ (and its ilk) and Java to just be more
modern variations of COBOL. If you have programmed in COBOL you will
understand why I make that comparison?

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drKarl
Arguably low level or high level is not black or white, but a degree, and
while certainly C is higher level than assembler, it's still pretty low level,
but C++ is higher level than C. I'd say Java is higher level than C++ for a
number of reasons, being pointers, memory management and garbage collection an
important part of it.

But I wouldn't agree that Javascript is higher level than Java. About casting
primitive types, Java pretty much takes care of that for you, as well as
autoboxing between primitives and their object counterparts. Java is
statically typed while Javascript is not, and that is a problem of Javascript,
but that doesn't mean it's higher level. Javascript is an awfully designed
language that happened to win in client side browser so we have to live with
it. Why self-inflict the pain of having to use it also on server side is
beyond my understanding.

And comparing Cobol to C++ or Java is plain ridiculous...

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oldandtired
I never said anything about whether javascript is higher or lower than Java.
Whether a language is statically typed, dynamically typed or somewhere in
between is not relevant to how high level it may be. C++, Java, Javascript and
many other languages are badly designed, for all sorts of reasons. However,
this is also not relevant to how higher a level the language is.

And comparing COBOL to C++ or Java is nor ridiculous if you have programmed in
any serious way with COBOL. The verbosity level of these languages is enough
to put them all in the same bucket.

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drKarl
I agree C++ and Java are verbose, yet COBOL is at least an order of magnitude
more verbose, since it lacks many abstractions. I have programmed in C++ and
Java, and I admit I have not programmed in COBOL, but I migrated COBOL data
files to databases and it was a PITA.

