Posted on by Mark Finkle

AJAX and Rocket Science

Seems I am not the only one disturbed by the FUD some groups are pushing about AJAX being very difficult to implement. This post has some good examples of how easy it can be.

Writing good, quality software is non-trivial in any language. Wizards and RAD designers do not automagically generate great software.

3 Replies to “AJAX and Rocket Science”

  1. You can mess things up in any language. No doubt. But I think it’s EASIER to mess things up in some languages.

    Here’s a couple of easily messed up languages, in my opinion:

    Any non-object oriented language
    Scheme
    Lisp
    Java Script
    Perl, to a certain extent
    Visual Basic, to a certain extent

    Harder to mess up languages:
    C++
    Delphi
    C#
    Java

    Sure, you can write “neat” programs in all of the mentioned languages. But I think, once you start dealing with large and complex structures, you’re LESS likely to mess things up if you use one of the more structured languages suggested.

    🙂

    Elling

  2. Elling,

    Your one of my only readers, so I don’t like telling you that your wrong. But, in this case I need to tell you that your wrong.

    C++ and Delphi (I use these everyday) are very easy to mess up when writing complicated programs. I would guess that same for C# and Java (I use them rarely, if ever). I believe its the complexity of the program and experience level of the programmer that determines how messed up the code becomes.

  3. I agree that experienced programmers will be able to create “tidy” code regardless of the system or language they’re working in. I think that’s the point you’re trying to make.

    But saying this is not the same as saying it’s equally EASY to create tidy code across different systems or languages.

    For instance, if you compare C and C++, the reason that most people would choose C++ over C is that C++ makes it EASIER to describe certain types of higher level structures. And using C++ you usually end up with more compact and more comprehensible programs than if you were using C for solving the same problem.

    I’m not saying that it’s impossible to create a clean and tidy solution in C for a complex problem. That’s certainly possible. But it’s EASIER to do it in C++, mainly because you have the class construct.

    So, I’ll have to disagree with you: Choice of language isn’t irrelevant, even if you’re an experienced programmer.

    Elling

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