[TriLUG] Broad question

[Steve Litt via TriLUG]

Scott Lambdin via TriLUG said on Fri, 1 Sep 2023 17:01:49 -0400

>Gentle beings,
>
>I find myself retired a little earlier than I expected so I'm moving to
>Mexico.
>
>I want to work on a project that is basically a site where people can
>play four handed chess. My skills are way out of date, and I am hoping
>you could just recommend the modern technologies I can start learning.
> I know perl and c (albeit with a layer of dust an inch think). But I
> am willing to go a
>new direction.  I would especially like a platform that might someday
>help me get some gig work.

I did a lot of professional Perl work in the late 1990's, and some Free
Software Perl work in the early 00's, but in my opinion Perl's "many
ways" philosophy makes it easy for a developer to shoot himself in the
foot, and almost guarantees that Perl developers won't be able to read
each others' code unless they Perl with similar dialects.

For things that need to be fast, small, and/or interface with the OS, C
is great. Use it!

I'd recommend Python to replace Perl. Python isn't the best language in
the world (Lua is), but with its spectacularly curated standard library
plus other available packages, you're pretty much guaranteed that
anything you start with Python you finish with Python (perhaps with a
little C).

I can't imagine C getting you gig work, but I'd imagine that Python is
as likely to get you gig work as any other *single* language.

SteveT