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0 pointsthrowitaway11231y ago0 comments

Rather than fixating on this single Prisma example, I'd like to address your larger point which seems to be that all greenfield projects are necessarily best suited to low level languages.

First of all, I would argue that software rewrites are a bad proxy metric for language quality in general. Language rewrites don't measure languages purely on a qualitative scale, but rather on a scale of how likely they are to be misused in the wrong problem domain.

Low level languages tend to have a higher barrier to entry, which as a result means they're less likely to be chosen on a whim during the first iteration of a project. This phenomenon is exhibited not just at the macroscopic level of language choice, but often times when determining which data structures and techniques to use within a specific language. I've very seldomly found myself accidentally reaching for a Uint8Array or a WeakRef in JS when a normal array or reference would suffice, and then having to rewrite my code, not because those solutions are superior, but because they're so much less ergonomic that I'm only likely to use them when I'm relatively certain they're required.

This results in obvious selection bias. If you were to survey JS developers and ask how often they've rewritten a normal reference in favor of a WeakRef vs the opposite migration, the results would be skewed because the cost of dereferencing WeakRefs is high enough that you're unlikely to use them hastily. The same is true to a certain extent in regards to language choice. Developers are less likely to spend time appeasing Rust's borrow checker when PHP/Ruby/JS would suffice, so if a scripting language is the best choice for the problem at hand, they're less likely to get it wrong during the first iteration and have to suffer through a massive rewrite (and then post about it on HN). I've seen plenty of examples of competent software developers saying they'd choose a scripting language in lieu of Go/Rust/Zig. Here's the founder of Hashicorp (who built his company on Go, and who's currently building a terminal in Zig), saying he'd choose PHP or Rails for a web server in 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQnz7L6x068&t=1821s

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zoogeny1y ago

> your larger point which seems to be that all greenfield projects are necessarily best suited to low level language

That is not my intention. Perhaps you are reading absolutes and chasing after black and white statements. When I say "it makes me think I should ..." I am not saying: "Everyone everywhere should always under any circumstances ...". It is a call to question the assumption, not to make emphatic universal decisions on any possible project that could ever be conceived. That would be a bad faith interpretation of my post. If that is what you are arguing against, consider if you really believe that is what I meant.

So my point stands: I am going to consider this more deeply rather than default assuming that an interpreted scripting language is suitable.

> Low level languages tend to have a higher barrier to entry,

I almost think you aren't reading my post at this point and are just arguing with a strawman you invented in your head. But I am assuming good faith on your part here, so once again I'll just repeat myself again and again: LLMs have already changed the barrier to entry for low-level languages and they will continue to do so.

throwitaway1123OP1y ago

> That is not my intention. Perhaps you are reading absolutes and chasing after black and white statements.

The first comment I wrote in this thread was a response to the following quote: "Yet projects inevitably get to the stage where a more native representation wins out." Inevitable means impossible to evade. That's about as close to a black and white statement as possible. You're also completely ignoring the substance of my argument and focusing on the wording. My point is that language rewrites (like the TS rewrite that sparked this discussion) are a faulty indicator of scripting language quality.

> I almost think you aren't reading my post at this point and are just arguing with a strawman you invented in your head. But I am assuming good faith on your part here, so once again I'll just repeat myself again and again: LLMs have already changed the barrier to entry for low-level languages and they will continue to do so.

And I've already said that I disagree with this assertion. I'll just quote myself in case you haven't read through all my comments: "I'm not an AI pessimist, but I'm also not an AI maximalist who is convinced that AI will completely eliminate the need for human code authoring and review, and as long as humans are required to write and review code, then those benefits [of scripting languages] still apply." I was under the impression that I didn't have to keep restating my position.

I don't believe that AI has eroded the barriers of entry to the point where the average Ruby or PHP developer will enjoy passing around memory allocators in Zig while writing API endpoints. Neither of us can be 100% certain about what the future holds for AI, but as someone else pointed out, making technical decisions in the present based on AI speculation is a gamble.

zoogeny1y ago

Ah, now we're at the dictionary definition level. So let's check Google:

    Inevitable:
          as is certain to happen; unavoidably.
       informal
          as one would expect; predictably.
          "inevitably, the phone started to ring just as we sat down"

Which interpretation of the word is "good faith" considering the rest of my post? If I said "If you drink and drive you will inevitably get into an accident" - would you argue against that statement? Would you argue with Google and say "I have sat down before and the phone didn't ring"?

It is Hacker News policy and just good internet etiquette to argue with good faith in mind. I find it hard to believe you could have read my entire post and come away with the belief of absolutism.

edit: Just to add to this, your interpretation assumes I think Django (the Python web application framework) will unavoidably be rewritten in a lower level language. And Ruby on Rails will unavoidably be rewritten. Do you believe that is what I was saying? Do you believe that I actually believe that?

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zoogeny1y ago

> your larger point which seems to be that all greenfield projects are necessarily best suited to low level language

So my point stands: I am going to consider this more deeply rather than default assuming that an interpreted scripting language is suitable.

> Low level languages tend to have a higher barrier to entry,

throwitaway1123OP1y ago

> That is not my intention. Perhaps you are reading absolutes and chasing after black and white statements.

zoogeny1y ago

Ah, now we're at the dictionary definition level. So let's check Google:

    Inevitable:
          as is certain to happen; unavoidably.
       informal
          as one would expect; predictably.
          "inevitably, the phone started to ring just as we sat down"

It is Hacker News policy and just good internet etiquette to argue with good faith in mind. I find it hard to believe you could have read my entire post and come away with the belief of absolutism.

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