The Path of a Programmer

The path of a programmer is a varied and twisted one. You start out on a problem, and before you know it, you've ended up in the deepest, darkest dungeon.

I started out in the Green Fields of Python code. I should enhance this script I thought. But, it's complex and critical, so I should test this before I write more. I know it works now, but it might stop working in the future.

So, before I can test, I need to restructure to make it into more "bite sized chunks". Each chunk is easier to test. Futhermore, Python forces you to do so if you want to test. Ok, now I have to worry about module structures and where to put files. A moment of consternation, then moving on.

Now, let's test... test code is going ok. Wait, what is this 'global' keyword?

And now, a few hours later, I am finding myself annoyed that Python doesn't have lexical closures. I had the exact same problem as this person here.

I was remarking to my co-workers that as a programmer you are always chasing after that perfect language. You want the balance between clean design, all the features you want, and modernity. Roughly speaking the language choices I've pondered about are:

- Python: Very clean, modern, but missing strange features. The white-space sensitivity makes it a hard without a full editing environment - not the greatest embedded scripting language.
- Javascript: Elegant, has good features, and severe gotchas. More of a web dev language, and not as well established as a server-side programming language. Lacks advanced features (think OS-level functions).
- Ruby: Frankly I don't know enough, but I do know the lack of unicode support is a major concern - with UTF8, multi-lingual support becomes easy.
- Java/C++/C: Too static. You end up writing too much code.
- Erlang: Cool concurrency model, but the language seems to lack "programming in the large" features.
- Common-Lisp: Inspired by Paul Graham perhaps? CL is fairly old and has wonder features from the early 80s, such as mono-case symbols. Even major Lispers don't recommend using Lisp for serious stuff.
- Haskell: Very weird, and is it practical to get things done in a pure functional language?
- PHP: Too hacky at a language level, and lacks many features. Passing function names as strings? Ouch.

I've obviously left off a huge number of languages, these are the ones that are foremost in my mind. If you feel like I've done a major disservice and my life could be transformed, let me know!

Practically speaking, my life is ruled by Python and PHP right now. PHP has quirks, but it's reasonably dynamic and not too bogus. Python is one of the better languages, but things like lexical closures and the limited-lambda support really chafes me. I want uber power, and I'm not sure I'm getting it.