Meh. I personally find articles like this useful: that's how I was turned onto all the technologies I really love right now like Linux, Emacs and Haskell. Most importantly, I was convinced to work through the learning curves for all of these--which were all easier than reputed but still took some effort--which turned out to be more than worth it.
Basically, the reader can decide for themselves. Also, each reader reads more then one blog post. So having a bunch of extreme opinions to compare (e.g. a strong case for a bunch of different languages) is more useful than a whole bunch of hedged blog posts that all repeat the same refrain: "well, all languages are basically equal and you should use what seems best".
In fact, blog posts like that are a big waste of time. (I'm looking at you, prog21.) I would much rather hear a bunch of different, reasoned opinions--especially if they contradict each other--than hearing the same boring, condescending tripe about choosing "the right tool for the right job" over and over.
Also, I think the idea that all--or even most--programming languages are somehow equal is patently absurd. Similarly, I think the oft-reused tool analogy is deeply flawed. But that's neither here not there and enough material for a blog post of its own.
Of course, that's something of a false dichotomy, although it does come up in practice. But I think posts advocating a technology are also good by themselves.
The choice of technology may be subtle, but this post only needs to present one option, which it does admirably.
Basically, the reader can decide for themselves. Also, each reader reads more then one blog post. So having a bunch of extreme opinions to compare (e.g. a strong case for a bunch of different languages) is more useful than a whole bunch of hedged blog posts that all repeat the same refrain: "well, all languages are basically equal and you should use what seems best".
In fact, blog posts like that are a big waste of time. (I'm looking at you, prog21.) I would much rather hear a bunch of different, reasoned opinions--especially if they contradict each other--than hearing the same boring, condescending tripe about choosing "the right tool for the right job" over and over.
Also, I think the idea that all--or even most--programming languages are somehow equal is patently absurd. Similarly, I think the oft-reused tool analogy is deeply flawed. But that's neither here not there and enough material for a blog post of its own.
Of course, that's something of a false dichotomy, although it does come up in practice. But I think posts advocating a technology are also good by themselves.
The choice of technology may be subtle, but this post only needs to present one option, which it does admirably.