Many companies, at some point of their history, ask themselves a simple question: what programming language should I use? The answer to this question is tricky, and has big, big consequences, for every single line of code of your future products will be written, read and suffered by it. This single choice defines the level of salaries you will have to pay, the skills of programmers you will have to deal with, the relative length and performance of your systems, the availability of tools (or lack thereof), the kind of support you will get (or not), the number of operating systems your code will work in, etc.
Given the fact that Web Development equals Software Development, this discussion will be of interest to those building the smallest websites, as well as old desktop-intensive apps. It will not be a “Tell me what programming language you use, and I will tell you who you are” type of article, though it may look like one, because that is something you have to figure out all by yourself.
If you take a look at the list of programming languages, any business person would have an instant headache. There are lots of them. With the strangest names. You cannot possibly guess which one to pick from such a list, obviously. So, how do companies choose the languages they use? There are some straightforward methods that I have seen so far, in no particular order:
- Looking at what other companies use (typically Google, Microsoft, Apple or Sun, but it could be 37signals too).
- Following the advice of the CIO, the Lead Architect or some other politically-powered person, which might or might not have read this article ;)
- Looking at what the current pool of programmers in the company know how to use. Rinse, wash, repeat.
- Following hype.
- Because there is a market plenty of available, cheap programmers that I could use for this project.
- Taking into account the characteristics of the languages themselves (static vs. dynamic, etc).
- Following the company’s history of past projects (successful or not).
- Following what your the client suggests (or mandates).
I think that it is a very bad idea to take any of the above methods in isolation, without considering other factors. Doing so is a path to self-destruction in the medium to long term, even if you succeed in the short term.