From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-09-04T13:28:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Joel Spolsky on languages for web programming

Alvin Ryder wrote:
> Are you saying all languages yield the same level of productivity? If
> they aren't equally productive then how much more productive is Java
> over C++ or VB over assembler? Do you need "credible statistics and
> research" to answer the question?

*He* may not be saying all languages yield the same level of
productivity. But I'll say something similar: the productivity of
programmers depends more on their knowledge of the application area and
their *familiarity* with the development environment than it does on the
environment and language.

There are tools that can drag down an otherwise productive team, but
they tend to get discarded fairly quickly.