NBT: Dynamic Languages

runrig on 2006-09-05T22:20:52

Finally, a report on dynamic languages in a magazine that the boss reads (mine, anyway). First Iron Python on .NET, then Sun and dynamic languages, and then Dynamic languages on .NET, and now in the latest print version of eWeek, "Wooing the next-gen developer -- The race is on to provide dynamic languages that make it easier to write applications" (update: It's online now). I've been mentioning that when I've been able to use perl for a project, e.g., 8 hour projects turn into 2-3 hours, but that just doesn't happen often enough, and just doesn't mean as much as when it says so right in print :-)

The article mentions Javascript, Python, Perl, PHP, and Ruby (and grouped under "other" in a sidebar, there's Eiffel, Erlang, Lisp, MS PowerShell, Prolog, Smalltalk, TCL and VBScript), though it does have a bit of FUD sprinkled throughout about dynamic languages from some "experts", e.g. "Dynamic languages suffer from some inherent limitations that make them inadequate for 'large software'", and "One of the challenges with dynamic languages is how do you test it, how do you debug it, and how do you make sure that your application is secure...all of this is tough to do with static languages. It's incredibly harder in dynamic languages", and there's the usual stuff about compile-time checking of data type errors, but all-in-all, it's mostly a positive article (and there is no bashing of any individual dynamic language :-).