Developing Programmers .com

Mark and I have been discussing why languages become popular, and the quote we found:

There are only two kinds of programming languages: 
those people always bitch about and those nobody uses.

- B. Stroustrup

We moved from this to discussing how some languages are used well beyond the scope of the language. C++, perl, php, and many others seem to be used in the strangest places more because of attachment than because it fits the role.

I think that some people use a tool because its available and will do the job. Others use it to join a club of tool users so they’re part of something big. Then they try to make the club bigger.

I’ve seen this with cultures surrounding several languages, operating systems, libraries, etc. It’s always worth evaluating the reasons you are using a particular tool. And, having said that, as long as it meets your needs well there’s no harm in joining the fanboy gang and enjoying it while it lasts — I’m a fan of several things for rational reasons, several for irrational reasons, and luckily there’s a lot of overlap