The topic of programming languages inevitably comes up when you've got a group of programmers talking to each other. What language do you use? What's your favorite language? Omg I fucking hate PHP too.
Why do so many programmers care about what language they use? If you're a programmer and you don't really pay much attention to the languages you're using to write code, why should you care?
This line in the Structures and Interpretations of Computer Programs does an excellent job explaining why programming languages are so important:
A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as a framework within which we organize our ideas about processes. Thus, when we describe a language, we should pay particular attention to the means that the language provides for combining simple ideas to form more complex ideas.
I love this line: A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks.
Yes, computers interpret programming languages to do things. That's pretty important. But who's writing these languages? We are. And who's reading these programs when they don't lead to the behavior we intend? We are. So yeah, the language absolutely matters. This is why "high-level" programming languages like Python and Ruby were invented. It's far easier to organize our ideas about processes using something that resembles natural language than using ones and zeros.
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