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Ask HN: What's your favourite programming language? And why?
2 points by Genius_um on April 20, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments
I'm curious to know that from you.



Whatever one the teams I work with know well.

I've seen vanilla JS go incredibly far, no typing at all, but it was everyones primary skill so it was easy for them. Same for Python.

Worst thing I've seen is people forcing languages that nobody knows.

My favorite is TypeScript just because its so easy to find engineers who are good with it.


I like Lisps. They just mesh really well with the way I think.


TLDR: I like Javascript because it is the PL that allows me to get things done in the fastest way. But other than that, I like Go, because of its simplicity. And also like the mindset that functional programming languages like Haskell provide.

---

I like Javascript. Not because it is elegant, performant, or a well-designed programming language, to the contrary, it is one of the programming languages that are full of foot guns. I like Javascript because it is one of those PLs where you have no problems with finding the libs you need, can get things done in a very fast & efficient manner (once you know your stuff), and so on.

I try to avoid side effects as much as possible and JS is not the best PL when it comes to it, but the thing is it is elastic enough that you can still write the way you like to work. I can still follow the "functional core imperative shell" mindset, and use the "good parts" [1] of the language.

I also like Go, because of its simplicity. And find the mindset that is provided by functional programming languages interesting.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockfo...


OCaml for its rich builtin types and type system w. pattern matching, mind bending functional patterns, Python for scripting. Will try to learn Rust.


for databases, it's SQL




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