Why so many languages? What if………

[HostBreak]

Dear folks I was wondering why there are so many languages for programming and scripting?
What I mean to say is that there are too many languages for such purposes these days and one person is not able to understand all of them.
Instead why don’t we humans have less number of languages which are more powerful?

And why they’ll become more powerful?
Well obviously when there are fewer languages there are more people related to each and when there are more people related to each one they’ll work more on them, thus making them more powerful.

Take a look at this list I mean its huge and still not all of them
HTML, XHTML, Java, C (Sharp), ASP, ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, PHP,JSP, Perl, WML, XML, Python, C, C++, Cool, TCL, XSL, REXX, Ruby, Rails, SVG
I have gathered this list from different sources.

[felgall]

What a small list you have provided (less than 1% of programming languages are on your list).

There are multiple programming languages for the same reason that there are multiple human languages and dialects - because people are different. They want to talk about different things or write programs that do completely different things. If everyone were the same then there would no longer be a need for programming languages because all of the necessary programs would have been written years ago.

[Stephen Philbin]

Gimmy HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, PHP, SQL, Java and C++. Anything else might get a passing glance, but unlikely anything more. (Naturally there are exceptions, but b*ll***s to listing them.)

Pick your toys and play, I say.

[HostBreak]

If everyone were the same then there would no longer be a need for programming languages because all of the necessary programs would have been written years ago.
Thats my point I mean human may have gone beyond where he is right now

[felgall]

Does that mean that you have a way to convince everyone else in the world to do everything my way?

[BuezaWebDev]

They have made specific programming languages for specific systems/machines. On the whole though, system developers and designers are trying to achieve one thing: efficiency.

[HostBreak]

Does that mean that you have a way to convince everyone else in the world to do everything my way?
Absolutely not...
what I am trying to say is what has been done in programing languages is past, but now don't you guys think that the world can come to a platform which is more robust and economical

[sparq]

Yeah, tell that to the world -- who would then, need to learn yet ANOTHER language.

As nice as it sounds, its along the lines of ending world poverty, finding the cure for AIDS / Cancer, and having sovergnty (sp?) around the world.

[Mr Initial Man]

I think if we had a language that did EVERYTHING, it would be too complicated to learn. I mean, think of HTML and CSS.

When all you had to work with was HTML, it was VERY complicated, since you had to use tables for layout, the <font> tag, and a heap of attributes for color, size, and so on. Throw in CSS, and even with the second language, coding a website became FAR easier.

[buntine]

...And then the browser wars began.

[Mr Initial Man]

Are you talking about the Mozilla/Opera vs. Internet Exploiter browser war? Honestly, I still say that HTML /CSS is easier than presentational markup.

[buntine]

And I would never dispute that. :p

[ewomack]

For a full answer to your question some reading would be required. There are some good histories of programming out there, and the reason that there are so many languages also has a historical dimension (i.e., how languages developed from FORTRAN, how B developed into C, etc.). Check out Amazon or a library and you'll find plenty.

[Mr Initial Man]

To put it simply, the various languages were put together to do different things. CSS is for presentation, Javascript is for bells and whistles, PHP, Perl, Coldfusion, etc. are for making server-side shortcuts, Java is for writing programs that appear on the web, and HTML is for displaying content.

Now, what the difference between what PHP, Perl, or Coldfusion do, I'm not sure.

[amazing_andr3]

Why are there so many organizations running the country? The mayor and his staff, the governor, the supreme court of justice, the senate, congress, the white house and so on. Just think how inefficient this is.

I think we should have just one good man (like President Bush) run everything, and everyone should do what he says.

[HostBreak]

I am very much surprised by the answers and I believe we should now bow in front of MS for its .NET

[BuezaWebDev]

I am very much surprised by the answers and I believe we should now bow in front of MS for its .NET

Too bad--it's not free. :P I would have agreed with you because everyone else in my classes always says that MS web tools are superior--And they hated MS too, until as of recent. :D

So, for my own sake--I'll say. PHP ALL THE WAY!

[buntine]

Too bad--it's not free. :P I would have agreed with you because everyone else in my classes always says that MS web tools are superior--And they hated MS too, until as of recent.

What are you talking about? It is free. The .NET framework, in my opinion, is superior to anything else that is currently being offered.

Regards.

[amazing_andr3]

So exactly why is MS's *shudder* stuff better than open source stuff?

[buntine]

Firstly, .NET incorporates the Object Oriented approach much more fluently (especially compared to PHP4's horrid OO). .NET has better garbage collection than PHP. .NET supports operator overloading (not sure if newer version of PHP support it).

.NET has better IDE's available, such as Visual Web Developer 2005 BETA (which, at this point in time, can be downloaded freely from MS Web Site).

.NET has full support for custom controls, PHP does not. .NET attempts to further the seperation of the presentation tier from the development tier, PHP (the last time I checked) does not.

.NET has language flexability. If you like BASIC, you can use VB.NET. If you like PHP or C(++), you can use C#. If you like Java, you can use J#.

Finally, in industry, .NET dominates over PHP. There are practically no PHP jobs in Australia compared to those available with MS technologies (especially .NET)

Overall, PHP is awesome. But I like the syntax of C# more than that of PHP.

Most of this information is based on personal experience with .NET and PHP4. Hopefully, PHP5 has improved on alot of of the problems with earlier versions.

Regards.

[amazing_andr3]

You made some good points there, but

As you said, PHP has almost fixed its OO problem.

I use one jobs site, which happens to be the leading jobs site in Romania. Most jobs are for PHP, followed by Java.

About the IDEs, I am very happy with Zend.

My main problem with .NET is that I can't use it. My host doesn't support it. :)

[buntine]

My main problem with .NET is that I can't use it. My host doesn't support it.

Thats not a problem with .NET, though. :p :)

.NET also supports binary compilation, so you can distribute your source as executables rather than flat .aspx files (or .php files). Again, I am not sure whether PHP tools are available for this.

I use one jobs site, which happens to be the leading jobs site in Romania. Most jobs are for PHP, followed by Java.

What is the I.T. industry like over there? I like Romania. It has a brutal history.

Regards.

[MstrBob]

In terms of compiling, there's the Zend Accelerator.

PHP 5 has a vastly improved Object Oriented approach. But, as of now, I've yet to fully examine it. Really, if you're comparing, you should compare .Net with PHP 5. But PHP 5 is not yet widely distributed enough to allow me to use it. I've got to make my apps PHP 4 compatible, unless I know for absolute dead sure I'll have PHP 5 (which hasn't happend yet. :( ) Hopefully, in time... But still, I have a certain fondness for PHP. I won't really get into the nitty-gritty comparisons, though, as I have not used the .Net framework.

[BuezaWebDev]

I can do .aspx with a regular editor right?

[buntine]

Zend will cost you a $1,000 a year, right? php-accellerator is the free option, but not so good.

[buntine]

I can do .aspx with a regular editor right?

Yes.

Comparing the two is a little wrong, anyway, considering .NET is not a language but a framework.

Regards.

[buntine]

Another note.

PHP is often much cheaper when it comes to hosting. Though, .NET is much cheaper for developing in the real world.

I would say ASP.NET is not for the hobbyist.

Regards.

[amazing_andr3]

What is the I.T. industry like over there? I like Romania. It has a brutal history.LOL. And what country doesn't have a brutal history?
Well, just to be fair, .NET is a not so distant 3rd, so there's plenty of jobs for it as well. Perhaps better paid.

Oh, and according to Google, PHP is 58.4 times better than ASP.

"asp is better than php - 114 results (http://www.google.ro/search?num=20&hs=H47&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&q=%22asp+is+better+than+php&btnG=Search)

"php is better than asp - 6660 results (http://www.google.ro/search?q=%22php+is+better+than+asp&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial)

Note that by the same logic, FF is less than two times better than IE, so that's a very strong prefference the community has for PHP.

[buntine]

"asp is better than php - 114 results

"php is better than asp - 6660 results

This is irrelevant, though. ASP is nothing like ASP.NET. Alot of people who bash ASP(.NET) have never used it but just automatically dislike it because its a MS development.

What is the URL of this job site?

Regards.

[HostBreak]

99% of people here are already bowing to MS.

[buntine]

Amzing Andr:

What is the URL of this job site? I cannot find it.

I would like to use this URL for proof in other situations that PHP jobs are abundant in some countries.

Regards.

[BuezaWebDev]

I'd like to see this as well. :P

I know that there are a lot of PHP jobs coming out here in Vancouver now.

[amazing_andr3]

http://bestjobs.neogen.ro/?cookieexistsb=false&bj_lg_p=search_job_result&c_keywords=asp+.net+&oras_sel=0&domeniu_sel=7

The asp search finds irrelevant results (matches words like aspiration). .net will also find a lot of irrelevant results. So you have to use both of them.

then just replace asp with php. You'll get more results.

Whith Java it's also a guess, because searching for Java will find JavaScript as well.