Elegant answer by Danny Thorpe:
The simplest answer is often the best: personal preference.
Why do people prefer one kind of car over another? There are many different kinds of cars, but they all serve basically the same purpose and are built pretty much the same way. Some believe that the car they drive is an expression of their personality or status some believe their car is actually technically superior in manufacture to his neighbor’s; some believe their car is an unreliable pile of junk and modify their daily pattern to accommodate their paranoia. There are many rationalizations for choice, but only one consistent answer: emotion. Personal preference. We prefer what we are comfortable with, or what excites us, or what makes sense to us, individually. And we will rationallize to absurd extremes to justify that emotional choice.
Cognitive psychologists and linguists hold that language not only represents our thoughts, but that the structure of a language can influence the structure of our thoughts, how we think about an issue or visualize an idea. A subtle distinction that can be expressed in a word in one language may require pages in another. If you are using the latter, would you express that nuance regularly, or even at all? No! It’s too much work. The idea doesn’t fit well into your language’s range of expression.
Are programming languages that different from spoken languages? Does a Fortran programmer deconstruct a programming problem differently than a Cobol programmer? Absolutely! Not only are the syntaxes different, but the data handling concepts behind these languages are fundamentally different as well.
Should a Fortran programmer be forced to write code in Cobol? Probably not, particularly if the programmer relates well to Fortran. The cliche’ here would normally be "Use the right tool for the job" but what many people overlook is that the tool, the thing that solves problems, is not the programming language - the critical asset to solving the programming objective is the programmer. The programmer can be inhibited by ill-fitting tools built for a different view of the world, or the programmer can be empowered by comfy tools where things make sense and ideas click into place. No two people think alike, so no one tool can be a best fit for everyone.
For best results, use the right tool for the programmer.
-Danny Thorpe
Delphi Compiler Architect
Borland
Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey / Oh, since I set my eyes on you. / I tell you the truth.
I can't get it right / Get it right / Since I met you...
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What's the best programming language?
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