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Entry #2: The Semicolon Wars

“The Semicolon Wars” is an article written by Brian Hayes in 2006 and published in the American Scientist, a magazine of Sigma Xi, (The Scientific Research Society). In the article, Brian Hayes talks about the history of the programming languages and how some programming languages are favorite or successful against other programming languages.

The article tells us that there are about between 2,500 and 8,500 programming languages, according by Bill Kinnersley and Diarmuid Piggott. By the moment I'm writing this entry, a new programming language comes up with upgrades or new features.

Each programming language have different syntax, semantics and focus on solving different problems. Each programming language has its advantages, disadvantages and limitations. These 2 premises led me to a conclusion: Each programmer has a favorite programming language, but, it depends according to the year and the trends of that time.

Learning a new programming language is easier if you already know other programming languages. The logic and algorithms for a problem will stay the same, moreover, the variables and syntax can also be maintained the same and could be written the same, but, that depends if the programming languages are related in someway.

Brian Hayes mentions that programming languages like FORTRAN or Lisp have survived the passing of time due to their power and their understandable code/syntax. However, as the article says the idea of scripting began with batch-command languages, because they were used to bind together other programming languages and extension languages, that are developed to be embedded inside programs; so scripting languages have grown up into general-purpose programming languages.

The article finishes saying that each person can rank the programming languages as they wish. A language placed in the top doesn't always mean it is the best, because we probably know or suit us better that language. New programming languages will keep coming up, and we, as programmers, have to adapt to new technologies, but, that doesn't care as we will have that one programming language that we will prefer above the others.

Article: Hayes, B. (2006). The Semicolon Wars. Recovered from http://34.212.143.74/s201913/tc2006/semicolon_wars.pdf

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