We have been there in one way or the other, at one point or the other. You see a post taking shots at the programming language you only really use for projects and consider to be your weapon, calling it old, perhaps, outdated.
Most times, the more experienced developers seem to ignore it but what about the budding developers who are still sort of trying to find their feet in the ever-changing world of technology?
I decided to create this article and share what I feel about what to do in situations like that.
Firstly, I would like to say that you should not just go about dropping and picking up new languages and technologies in a bid to stay up-to-date with current trends in the tech space. If you are currently learning or working with a programming language, rather than leaving it and adopting a new one, why don’t you push yourself to get better at the one you currently use? Learn new and safest practices and you can still accomplish what “new technologies” can. For example, PHP has been one of the languages that has been on the receiving end of being old but it still holds its own in the top 10 programming languages used by developers as per most statistics. As a matter of fact, a good number of websites and web applications have their backend developed with PHP, frankly, I don’t see PHP going anywhere any time soon.
Also, I would like to add that as a developer who is still finding his feet, you should not be intimidated by new trends or friends telling you to make the switch, rather, you should stick to your gun(s) and observe the new trends whether they would be worth considering in the long run, if at all you’d want to add a new language to your arsenal.
However, this is not to debunk the idea of having multiple programming languages in your toolkit, as a matter of fact, if you are very sound in one, the switch to a new one might seem smoother and you might even stand a better chance in the market. This being said, the bottom line remains that you should be sound and understand the in and out of your choice tools.
I would conclude by saying it is better to be good at a single language that to have average knowledge in four or five. Stick to your old guard, get better at it and let others do the talk, your work would do the talking for you.
Like I said earlier, this is just my opinion, you can add your opinions in the comments, I’d love to see them too.
Till then, stay bug-free.