[翻译Joel On Software]选择一门语言/Choosing a language

Joel on Software

Choosing a language

选择一门语言

by Joel Spolsky Sunday, May 05,2002

Why do developerschoose one programming language over another for a given task?

为什么对一项给定的任务，开发者会偏向于选择某一门语言？我啥事也干不了。

Sometimes I choose raw C when I needblazing speed.

有时候当我需要飞速的时候我会选择原始C语言。

When I want something that will run onWindows with as small a distribution as possible, I often choose C++ with MFC staticallylinked.

当我要写个东西运行在Windows而且希望发布包越小越好的时候，我通常会选择静态链接的MFC C++。

When we need a GUI that will runon Mac, Windows, and Linux, a common choice is Java (although the GUI willnot be perfect, it will work.)

当我们需要一个能够在Mac，Windows和Linux上面运行的GUI界面程序的时候，一个通常的选择就是Java（虽然GUI界面不完美，但至少是能工作的）

For rapid GUI development and reallysmooth UIs, I like Visual Basic, but I know that I'm going to have to pay theprice in the size of the distributable and the fact that I'll be locked intoWindows.

对于快速的GUI开发和非常平滑的界面开发，我喜欢Visual Basic，但我知道我要付出的代价是发布包的大小和我会被框定在Windows平台上。

For a command-line tool that must run onany UNIX machine and doesn't need to be fast, perl is a good choice.

对于必须运行在UNIX机器上的命令行工具，而且不需要非常快的话，perl是个不错的选择。

If you have to run inside a web browser,JavaScript is the really the only choice. In a SQL stored procedure, youusually get to choose between one vendor's proprietary SQL derivative or gohome.

如果必须要运行在web浏览器里，JavaScript实际上是唯一的选择了。在一个SQL写成的存储过程里，你通常要选择一个供应商所有的SQL方言或者 放弃。

What's the Point?重点是什么？

But I hardly ever choose a language basedon syntax. Yeah, I prefer the {}; languages (C/C++/C#/Java). And I have lots ofopinions as to what makes a "good" syntax. But I wouldn't accept a 20MB runtime just to get semicolons.

但我几乎不会因为语法选择一门语言。是的，我更喜欢{}；语言（C/C++/C#/Java）。而且对于什么是“好”的语法我有很多观点。但我不会为了要分号而接受一个20MB的运行时库。

Which makes me wonder a bit about .NET'scross-language strategy. The idea is, choose any language you want, there arezillions, and they all work the same way.

这让我对.NET的跨平台策略感到有点惊奇。想法是，选择任何你想要的语言，已经有不计其数的语言，他们的工作方式都是相同的。

VB.NET and C#.NET are virtually identicalexcept for tiny syntactic differences. And other languages that want to be partof the .NET world need to support at least a core set of features and types orthey won't be able to Play Well With Others. But how do I develop a UNIXcommand line utility in .NET? How do I develop a tiny Windows EXE in less than16K in .NET?

VB.NET和C#.NET除了略微的语法不同之外几乎是一样的。并且其他的语言如果想要成为.NET世界里的一员的话，就必须支持一堆核心的特性和类型，否则他们就无法和.NET世界里的其他成员很好共存。但是我要如何才能使用.NET创建一个UNIX命令行呢？我如何才能使用.NET创建一个小于16K的Windows可执行程序。

It seems like .NET gives us a"choice" of languages precisely where we couldn't care less about it-- in the syntax.

看起来.NET似乎给了我们一种语言选择，在语法上要操心更多。