Java vs Python, Angular vs React. You can find heated arguments about why one is crap and the other isn’t. Sometimes it’s odd how passionately some developers hate specific languages.
Every language and framework has its pros and cons, but are any of them really superior to the others? There are a few reasons why developers love to hate other programming languages and they’re all pretty funny.
They just like their language better
When most of your experience revolves around one or two tech stacks, it’s easy to become biased towards others. The first sign of difficulty with the new tech stack means that it sucks. It doesn’t matter if it works completely different from your usual tech stack and you don’t quite know the syntax. It’s the stack’s fault it doesn’t work like you think it should. I think we’ve all done this at some point or another.
Getting used to the indentation in Python is a lot different from the syntax in C#. Or making components in Angular is slightly different than making components in React. When you know one language better than the other, it makes you like yours more. Then when you have to use a framework you aren’t comfortable with, it makes you hate it a little. It’s just one of those developer annoyances that can get amplified relatively easily.
It’s a part of the tech culture
The web development community has its own little quirks. Hating other programming languages just happens to be one. We love our soapboxes about tech things and all the reasons behind them. It’s fun to try and take down an entire language because of some weirdness you found one time. Have you ever heard someone get wound up about doing stuff with JVM?
Most developers don’t seriously hate other languages. It’s almost like a game we play. Trying to convince someone that our language is better for an application than theirs can be entertaining. It’s incredible how much developers know about the history of tech stacks and the details about how they work. Nothing brings that out more than an argument over which language is better.
It helps keep us all learning
Trying to prove the superiority of your stack means you really have to know what you’re talking about. That pushes you to stay up to date with what is happening in your tech stack. Then when it’s time to bash all those other languages, you have a sufficient amount of ammo. Making sure you know what you’re bashing is going to help you stay current on your skills.
On the other side, hearing developers talk about the specifics of their tech stacks will expose you to different ways of doing things. You might not like that other language, but you see a way you can implement something better in your stack. Listening to people talk about how great their stack is will teach you some of the details you only learn from experience.
Developers don’t really hate other programming languages, frameworks, or tech stacks, but they do love to argue like they do. Then again, there are some people who had to use Objective C so they might actually hate that language. Regardless of the different stacks we work in, they all have pros and cons and it depends on your application which one you’ll use.
Or will it? Do you think there really is a language that could be used for everything and do it all well? I’m really curious because it seems like all of the most used languages do things in really similar ways. Let me know what you think in the comments.
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