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Syntax matters. But...

1. Other things matter more. How a language scales to 100 programmers working on 10 million lines over 20 years, say, matters more (in some environments) than the syntax does. Syntax contributes to that. But syntax contributes to that precisely by being pretty vanilla, uninteresting syntax. More, sexier syntax makes a language worse for that environment. (I'm talking about go here. But I could make a similar argument for other languages in other environments.) Syntax matters as a means to an end; the end matters. Syntax where the end is syntax doesn't matter so much.

2. I suspect (and assert without proof) that peoples' brains work in different ways, and that a person finds languages easier or harder as those languages conform or conflict with the way the person thinks. Ruby syntax gives you a headache? And the problem isn't that you just need to learn Ruby better. But for every you, there's (at least one) someone who has the same issue with J/K/APL. And that's fine. People whose way of thinking matches APL should program in APL, and those whose way of thinking matches Ruby should program in Ruby. We don't need one language to rule them all. They each have their target niche and their target audience.




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