Comment of the article "The Semicolon Wars" by Brian Hayes



In a first part, we will see the differences between the programming languages and human languages, and how they can be similar. In a second part we will see the different wars and debates that have marked the programming history. In a last part, we will see the ways that developers choose a programming language.

In this article, the author makes a comparison between programming and human languages. It is true that there are similarities with the evolution of the languages but also differences as regards the time that it can take to improve and change them. For example, the author noticed that the human and programming languages are diversed, are both the creation of man and continue to evolve. The main difference is that the human languages take years and years to change and evolve whereas the programming languages took only 50 years to do it. Hence, humans don’t see the programming languages in the same way as the human languages: we have to protect them because they are precious for the humanity (contrary to the programming languages, which are just basic creations). However, programming languages are evolving and are improved (syntaxes, efficacy). It’s like a new way to communicate with computers (and not with humans) and create new things thanks to these languages.

There are a multitude of programming languages and each one has its own properties, application fields and its own syntax.  However, programmers have different opinions and think similarly. These programming languages have caused conflicts between humans: for example how to count, how to manipulate data (little and big endian war), or how to have the best and the most logical syntax (the war of the semicolons, how do we have to use the semicolons?). These conflicts are in fact not really important: humans need debates to evolve and update their programming languages and create new languages. Programming languages also have similarities because they share the same influencing models.  

Nowadays, developers have the freedom to program whatever they want or whichever applications they want (websites, mobile applications) thanks to all the different programming languages that are available. Certain languages are more intuitive and easier to learn. Another fact is that developers tend to prefer and defend the cause of the programming languages they have learned before. A language with an easy syntax and which has a good documentation of the web is more appreciated.


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