Open Source Languages Rumble At OSCON

blackbearnh writes "Everybody knows what the best programming language is, it's whatever one you like the most. But is there a best language overall? Or even a best language for a given purpose? This question has been debated since the first time there were two languages to choose from. The argument is still going on, of course, but maybe a little light will be shed on the issue this week at OSCON. On Wednesday night at 7PM Pacific, representatives of the 5 major open source languages (perl, PHP, Python, Java and Ruby), as arbitrarily decided by O'Reilly, will meet to debate the merits of their various languages. If you're not going to be at OSCON, you can watch it live on a webcast and pose questions or comments to the participants. The representatives are: Python: Alex Martelli, Google; Ruby: Brian Ford, Engine Yard; PHP: Laura Thomson, Mozilla; Perl: Jim Brandt, Perl Foundation; Java: Rod Johnson, SpringSource."

Open Sores

[Anonymous Coward]

My God - it's full of puss!

debate rules

[Lord Ender]

OSCON organizers have stated that the language debate won't be considered finished until at least one of the languages is compared to Hitler and/or the Nazis.

Rod Johnson

[hugerobot]

Rod Johnson?? Really?! Rod Johnson is easily one of the top 5 names of all time. Rod Johnson wins by name alone!!!! It's settled. Java is the best language. Suck it, other languages and your weakly named representatives! I'm a PHP programmer more than anything... but I must concede to Rod Johnson. You can't make that name any better! Maybe if his middle name was 'Motherf***ing'.

Re:The language of fists, knives, and guns?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the answer is Malbolge. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Rod Johnson

[PeanutButterBreath]

Agree, except it seems like someone named Rod Johnson would be a Python kind of guy.

The other members of "Team Java"

[Tetsujin]

For the Java team, the summary only mentions Rod Johnson - it should be noted that Rod will be joined by other veteran developers advocating Java: Long Wang, Peter Cox (and his wife Anita), and, of course, notable Java developer Dick Manmeat.

Re:debate rules

[TeknoHog]

Every time an online discussion resorts to a Hitler analogy, God wins!

Re:what does open mean?

[Deanalator]

C is not a major programming language.

Nothing interesting has been done in C since the early 90's, when many of today's top programmers were just learning to walk.

Re:debate rules

[atheistmonk]

The acid is likely what causes you to see the trolls in the first place...

Again, Pascal gets the Shaft

[syntap]

Then again what is Pascal without Borland anymore?