Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Sign up for free
Menu
Search
Features
All features
Private URLs
Password Protection
Custom URLS
Scheduled publishing
Remove Branding
Restrict embedding
Deck Collections
Notes
Features
All features
Private URLs
Password Protection
Custom URLS
Scheduled publishing
Remove Branding
Restrict embedding
Deck Collections
Notes
Explore
Featured decks
Featured speakers
Programming
Technology
Storyboards
Explore
Featured decks
Featured speakers
Programming
Technology
Storyboards
Pricing
Search
Sign in
Sign up for free
Nobody Ever Got Fired for Picking Java
Search
Alex Payne
May 14, 2013
Programming
40k
21
Share
Embed
Copy iframe code
Copy JS code
Copy link
Start on current slide
Nobody Ever Got Fired for Picking Java
Evaluating emerging programming languages for business-critical applications.
Alex Payne
May 14, 2013
More Decks by Alex Payne
See All by Alex Payne
Reconsidering Startups
al3x
7
670
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
Kotlinize Is Not Just Converting to Kotlin
chigichan24
1
210
[DroidKnights 2026] Workflow AX: From Auto-Documented Policies to E2E Testing
raeminkang
0
320
Coding with AI: How to trust the storyteller (AWS Community Day Adria, Ljubljana 2026)
slobodan
0
130
3回つくってわかった、 定期実行ジョブ基盤の本質情報
takai
4
3.5k
Inertia Rails: The One-Person Framework with React & Friends
skryukov
0
210
[JA] Domain Modeling with Vanilla Rails: 「操作」から再考するRailsの設計論
yasaichi
4
1.7k
선언형 햅틱 라이브러리 진동을 소개합니다
l2hyunwoo
1
250
LLM 101
dalinaum
0
450
現場と育てるRailsモデリング 〜Spreadsheetから始めたモデル設計〜
siroemk
2
1.2k
パスワード再設定メールのURLについて知っておこう
uyuki234
0
210
Herb in Rails 8.2: Your ERB views, now HTML-aware @ Kaigi on Rails 2026, Tokyo, Japan
marcoroth
2
390
動画プレイヤーはなぜカクつくのか 〜Flutterのレンダリングとネイティブの境界を解剖する〜
naruogram
0
320
Featured
See All Featured
Ecommerce SEO: The Keys for Success Now & Beyond - #SERPConf2024
aleyda
1
2.2k
Music & Morning Musume
bryan
48
7.5k
How to Talk to Developers About Accessibility
jct
2
610
<Decoding/> the Language of Devs - We Love SEO 2024
nikkihalliwell
1
380
How STYLIGHT went responsive
nonsquared
100
6.3k
Exploring anti-patterns in Rails
aemeredith
4
560
Utilizing Notion as your number one productivity tool
mfonobong
4
630
Fantastic passwords and where to find them - at NoRuKo
philnash
53
4k
Building Adaptive Systems
keathley
44
3.3k
[Rails World 2026] Durable orchestration on Rails: from continuation to workflow
palkan
2
990
Deep Space Network (abreviated)
tonyrice
0
400
Optimizing for Happiness
mojombo
378
71k
Transcript
NOBODY EVER GOT FIRED FOR PICKING JAVA EVALUATING EMERGING PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGES FOR BUSINESS-CRITICAL SYSTEMS
None
THE PROBLEM: SO MUCH TO BUILD, SO MANY LANGUAGES TO
BUILD IT ALL IN
THE OLD GUARD: JAVA PYTHON PHP/ASP RUBY C/C++/OBJ-C/C# PERL VISUAL
BASIC HASKELL OCAML/F# ...
MO' LANGUAGES, MO' PROBLEMS: NEW LANGUAGES ARE COMING OUT FAST
AND FURIOUS
48 LANGUAGES PRESENTED AT @EMERGINGLANGS SINCE 2010
EVEN MORE PROBLEMATIC: LANGUAGE EVANGELISTS ARE AT YOUR DOOR
SO HOW DO WE CHOOSE?
CRAPPY SOLUTION #1: MAKE A TOTALLY ARBITRARY SELECTION
CRAPPY SOLUTION #2: MAKE IT A POPULARITY CONTEST
POPULARITY CONTEST, EX 1
POPULARITY CONTEST, EX 2
CRAPPY SOLUTION #3: DESIGN BY HACKER NEWS
CRAPPY SOLUTION #4: CROWDSOURCE YOUR DECISION
CROWDSOURCING
WHAT IF WE MADE AN EVIDENCE-BASED DECISION?
BEWARE SUBJECTIVE CRITERIA, AKA:
SUBJECTIVE CRITERIA: READABILITY TERSENESS PRODUCTIVITY AGILITY MINDSHARE POLA/POLS ...
PAPERS REFERENCING DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS: ~3,810,000 PAPERS REFERENCING LANGUAGE ERGONOMICS: ~7,090
"[P]reliminary results confirm that unsupported claims have been around since
the inception of higher level programming in the 1950s. [T]his behavior is unacceptable for the health of the research community." – MARKSTRUM, 2010
POSITIVE SUBJECTIVE CRITERIA UNIQUE TO EMERGING LANGUAGES: DEVELOPER APPEAL STRATEGIC
NOVELTY HOMESTEADING MALLEABLE ROADMAP ACCESSIBLE COMMUNITY
OBJECTIVE CRITERIA
OBJECTIVE CRITERIA: PERFORMANCE LIBRARY BREADTH AVAILABLE PRIMITIVES STABILITY OF SYNTAX
SECURITY HISTORY DEVELOPMENT CYCLE ...
APPLY OBJECTIVE CRITERIA DIRECTLY TO DECISION THEORY
CAN WE MAKE OBJECTIVE DECISIONS ABOUT EMERGING LANGUAGES?
AT FIRST, NO.
EXAMPLE: GO VS RUST
EMERGING LANGUAGE ADOPTION STRATEGIES
STRATEGY #1: ACKNOWLEDGE RISK, HEDGE AGAINST IT
STRATEGY #2: MITIGATE RISK THROUGH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
STRATEGY #3: PLAY TO YOUR PICK'S STRENGTHS, USE ANOTHER LANGUAGE
WHERE IT'S WEAK
FIN. QUESTIONS? THANKS FOR LISTENING!