[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/1/2022 8:17 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 1/31/22 21:37, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 1/31/2022 8:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 1/31/22 19:04, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>> On 1/31/2022 3:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>> On 1/31/22 14:33, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>>>> What about a "jack of all trades" that can do any job?
>>>>>
>>>>> Like choosing the wrong language for a task a "jack of all trades"
>>>>> is famous for doing everything, but none of the tasks well.  It is
>>>>> not a compliment to be called one.
>>>>
>>>> Why do you ass-u-me that just because a language is versatile, that 
>>>> it cannot do things well?  Do you have examples?  Any real facts?  
>>>> Or just bullshit?
>>>
>>> I don't assume it.  At one time, when languages were more domain
>>> specific, it was a known factor of program development.
>>
>>>                                            One would have hoped
>>> that the formalization of "Software Engineering" would have kept
>>> the idea in vogue, but, alas, no.
>>
>> I see lots of specialization.
>>
>> Most languages are only a big language within a few areas. And
>> even if a language is used within multiple areas then the
>> libraries/frameworks used are often very different).
>>
>> OS - C/C++
>> containers - Go
>> servers (web, app, DB, MQ and Cache) - C/C++ or Java
>> client side web - JavaScript
>> Windows desktop apps - C# or C++
>> Mac desktop apps - Objective-C or Swift
>> iPhone and iPads - Swift
>> Android phones - Java or Kotlin
>> server side web - PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Java or C#
>> backend processing - Java, C++, C# or Python
>> data analysis - Python, R
> 
> Don't confuse use for design intention.  Most of those languages
> had no particular purpose when designed and were just general
> purpose languages.

I think that picture is a bit more blurred.

Some languages were designed for their specific
purpose (from the above list JavaScript, Swift,
PHP, R).

Some languages were designed for specific purposes
but ended up being used in many other contexts
(C, Java, Python).

Some languages were designed for general usage
(C++, C#, Kotlin).

Arne