The pleasure of C# is that you can build industrial-strength applications for Windows, web, cloud, RIA, phone, etc., reusing knowledge across all those different platforms and knowing that you’ll be able to do whatever you want to do. I could also argue that the pleasure of C# (or VB.NET) is simply Visual Studio … I love the .NET development environment.

All these languages have their strengths. What amazes me is that the language writers clearly keep observing and learning from one another. Static languages add dynamic (and functional) features. Dynamic languages add better development environments, intellisense-like features, and production support.

If I need to rip some knowledge from a few text documents, I’ll probably still reach for perl, because the regex support is so natural. But if I need to add similar support into a production app, I’ll figure out the slightly tougher syntax to do it in C#. Conversely, if I’m going to create a service-oriented app, I’m going to reach for C#/WCF … but I have to admit it’s pretty cool that I can consume those services using perl or python or ruby (with appropriate bindings, of course).

I think I’m agreeing with you … but I also appreciate how the alternatives encourage people to look at similar problems in different ways. For example, you’re argument for “var” being optional comes from your experience in VB … though you choose to use C# instead of VB, there are places where you still want C# to be more “VB-like” … I think that exploring and celebrating those differences is what moves all the languages forward.

Nice post.

P

Refix is more of a Maven’esque type of deal, but the concept is the same. Local, corporate and global repositories are all possible.