I think Joseph Scott doesn’t realize that PHP, Ruby, and Python are languages and therefore try to solve computer languages problems. I was listening to the CouchCast Podcast with Joseph Scott and if what he said could have been interpreted one way, in that he went off on a tangent that these languages should solve the Web Problem together. This counter rant to that interpretation would probably go ahead like below.

However, other than PHP, none of the other two are geared towards the web.

What this means is that, and even with PHP, is that computer languages try to solve the computer language problem. It is hard enough to decide how to implement lambdas, objects, and how libraries and code interacts and then have that compounded by these general web problems, which are different for every body.

PHP does not concern itself with page caching, it is up to the developer. Ruby and Python do its best with general programming solutions and the developer has to write for the web. Ruby and Python Languages do not concern itself with the web. Would it be better if they did? Probably not, because they do a great job at allowing developers to solve these solutions and to allow other developers to solve the problems for other developers. They do this very well, so to say that the language engineers of Ruby and Python should jump aboard with PHP to solve page caching or whatever solutions is probably wishful thinking.

It isn’t going to happen. The language engineers are concerned with helping other developers solve their problems and that takes a long enough time than to branch out and “fix” other issues within the community.

Languages generally try to do this, by implementing a Standard Object/Procedural Library that comes with the language. This allows for all developers to use, instead of recreating the wheel in each software package. However, this is only a language problem, because developers are implementing the same solutions over and over again and if they change projects have to relearn the similar solutions.

For PHP, it might be a good idea for it to solve the page caching problem, but oh yeah, it already has. Yeah, it isn’t going to hold your hand, but it at least allows you the ability to hook into PHP to easily solve the problem yourself. That is what computer languages do, they are supposed to help you solve problems yourself without deciding how to solve them for you.

Also, solutions for problems will inherently be implemented differently in PHP, Ruby, and Python. We all know that Ruby on Rails, a framework, does everything differently than the language PHP, which is to say that other frameworks developed in PHP are differently implemented than Ruby on Rails. The web solution in Python is logically different in implementation, than even the frameworks in Ruby and PHP.

Therefore, you shouldn’t be saying that language engineers should get together, because that is never going to happen, ever. What you should be saying is that Developers of Frameworks should get together to provide closer implementations, so that if I work on a popular framework in one language, I can go to another framework in another language and jump right in. This has been tried with cakePHP with some similarities Ruby on Rails. However, part of the problem hindering full compatibility is that Ruby has features that PHP does not.

Technically then, it is completely up to the users of these languages to take the time to solve some problems together than the programmers working on those languages. Give those people your love, because they spend a lot of time trying to make the rest of our lives easier.

Update: This is what Joseph was meaning to say and I just misinterpreted the podcast. It is funny, I thought, what is he talking about with the mindset of language mailing lists and reading back to Dave Winer rant. It didn’t occur to me until later that the direction could have been toward general purpose language forums that don’t have to do with the direction of where the languages are going. The funny part is that I tried to understand the context by relistening to that portion, but missed the part about it being focused toward local communities.

I’m going to leave this up, since the rant is accurate, whereas the person is it directed to is not to blame.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Game Engine Development and Open Source
• Plans for Base CMS
• Project Plans
• Calibre Improvements Part 2
• Usability Testing Software Development