Perfect Storm

Through my whole career I was torn between what I like (Prolog and Caml) and what makes me marketable (Java, VB, Perl, C, Python, C#). Of course, the world is not black and white so, in the list of marketable languages there are some that more likeable to me than others.

Java is acceptable, but is too verbose and the libraries are grossly over engineered (with no apparent advantage), of course a DSL framework is nowhere to be seen. Python is also acceptable, but the lack of DSLs (and Guido explicitly stating that he is not going in that direction in Python 3000) makes it loose a lot of its sex appeal, also, less importantly, I have some bias towards strong typing.

Enter Ruby: DSLish, very pragmatic, a vibrant community, a fantastic JVM implementation, and one can $$$ on it… I am giving it a try.

Regarding platforms, a less important issue for me, I am quite happy working on top of the JVM: multi platform, stable, industry support, really open…

A few years ago I was working with Prolog, which I liked. Prolog will not make do much good to ones employability as such I have decided to go the Java way. I quited my Prolog job and found some Java work.

During the years that followed I have become more or less of a J2EE specialist. Considering Java an acceptable language I have noticed that much of my J2EE knowledge was not a productivity advantage but really what is needed to “tame the beast”. J2EE is overcomplex and overengineered. I have spent most of my time understanding gazillions of TLAs instead of solving real problems. Frustration is a good word to describe what I feel.

As such I have decided to go back to Prolog. I believe in its elegance. I believe strongly in domain languages, in which Prolog excels.

I have decided to also go the way of Phyton: Its very elegant for an imperative/OO language, has a big community of smart people that are as interested in technology as in having a job, and it “fits my head” (like Prolog and oposite to J2EE where the complexity of the system is overwhelming).

I don’t know about the future, but for now I will be much more productive, more happy, surrounded mainly be people that like what they do and excel on what they do.

Employability in the future? Maybe Python will help (no chance with Prolog), if not at least I will have good time.

Time to get back a little of that adolescent mentality of not give up to the system and be a bit more spontaneous.