languages of choice

2 definitions found

languages of choice - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  languages of choice
  
     C and Lisp.  Nearly every hacker knows one of these, and
     most good ones are fluent in both.  Smalltalk and Prolog are
     also popular in small but influential communities.
  
     There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers
     with Fortran, or even assembler, as their language of choice.
     They often prefer to be known as Real Programmers, and other
     hackers consider them a bit odd (see "The Story of Mel").
     Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or
     appropriate for anything but HLL implementation, glue, and
     a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems
     programs.  Fortran occupies a shrinking niche in scientific
     programming.
  
     Most hackers tend to frown on languages like Pascal and
     Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered
     necessary for hacking (see bondage-and-discipline language),
     and to regard everything even remotely connected with COBOL
     or other traditional card walloper languages as a total and
     unmitigated loss.
  
     [Jargon File]
  

languages of choice - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  languages of choice
   n.
  
     C, Perl, Python, Java and LISP -- the dominant languages in
     open-source development. This list has changed over time, but slowly.
     Java bumped C++ off of it, and Python appears to be recruiting people
     who would otherwise gravitate to LISP (which used to be much more
     important than it is now). Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in
     small but influential communities.
  
     The Real Programmers who loved FORTRAN and assembler have pretty
     much all retired or died since 1990. Assembler is generally no longer
     considered interesting or appropriate for anything but HLL
     implementation, glue, and a few time-critical and hardware-specific
     uses in systems programs. FORTRAN occupies a shrinking niche in
     scientific programming.
  
     Most hackers tend to frown on languages like Pascal and Ada, which
     don't give them the near-total freedom considered necessary for
     hacking (see bondage-and-discipline language), and to regard
     everything even remotely connected with COBOL or other traditional
     DP languages as a total and unmitigated loss.