Anders Hejlsberg says, "Working with a programming language is a much more immersive process. People don't really come to appreciate a programming language until they've worked with it for months. And then they may gradually realize, 'Wow, this is really comfortable.' You just can't do that very quickly."

Read this Artima.com interview with the lead designer of C#:

http://www.artima.com/intv/csdes.html

What do you think of Anders' comments?

I don't buy it. I liked the appearance of Python almost instantly. I appreciated the short amount of code it took to write something in the language. I also appreciated the incredible lack of bugs in the Python class libraries. In reference to Anders' quote, I will say there was a period of about a month where I kept running into differences between C++ and Python semantics, and I almost gave up a few times. But once that period was over, I was completely hooked.

In contrast, I can't get into C# or Java. Frankly, there is not that much of an improvement in the appearance/conciseness of the languages (over C++) in order for me to bother. The class libraries are also buggy, which is something I discovered within 10 minutes of writing my first real programs in both languages. With C#, it was a bug with the ListView class. With Java, it was a bug in an I/O class. This had a big impact on me appreciating either language.

I think a language has to immediately have some aesthetic value, but also still have flexibility and power underneath as your skills grow in the language. This is what separates, say, Visual BASIC from Python in my mind.

Brandon

Which Wiki do they use?

> I don't buy it. I liked the appearance of Python
> almost instantly. [...]

It really depends on the language and the level of experience. If you are submitted to an entirely new paradigm then you most likely will need time to get to know the language before passing judgement -- but are you well versed in C++, Java, etc., then it is probably easy to see the true colour of C#, which doesn't really bring us anything new or exciting :)

Btw: Am I the only one who finds it ironic that Bruce is target for the comment quoted above, recalling the premature and hasty judgement Bruce himself passed on Ruby some years ago?

His statement can be found here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020201201937/http://www.mindview.net/Etc/FAQ.html#Ruby

And it starts like this: "[...] I just happened to spend about 45 minutes in the bookstore looking through the Ruby book.", and then goes on to a very shallow critic of some optional Ruby features which are common in most functional programming languages.

And while he is at it, he also manages to express dissatisfaction with C#.

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