>E.g. lots of people use node.js because its in a language they're familiar with and it fills a niche (lightweight process that can accept and process many incoming requests). I use Erlang for those needs, which actually existed before node.js. But it's a "weird" language so most people don't use it.
If languages are close enough, then yes, familiarity or popularity will influence usage.
>I like Python more than Ruby. I've learned both but never use Ruby anymore. Other than preference or mandate I'm not sure why I would use one over the other.
Never used Ruby, but my impression is that like Python, Ruby is a slow interpreted language with a good set of libraries and user friendly syntax. So you're probably right that there's not much between them.
>Lots of people used to writing in scripting languages seem to be discovering the wonders of a speedy language like Go. You could obviously use speedy languages before Go but their preferences made them not want to use them. For whatever reason Go is attractive to them.
I think that attraction of Go is that there is one build system, one debugger, one linter, etc. Having all these things be take responsibility by the language developers is a big plus as it avoids buck-passing and inconsistencies. While Go doesn't excite me at an emotional level, there are some things that it seems really good at.
If languages are close enough, then yes, familiarity or popularity will influence usage.
>I like Python more than Ruby. I've learned both but never use Ruby anymore. Other than preference or mandate I'm not sure why I would use one over the other.
Never used Ruby, but my impression is that like Python, Ruby is a slow interpreted language with a good set of libraries and user friendly syntax. So you're probably right that there's not much between them.
>Lots of people used to writing in scripting languages seem to be discovering the wonders of a speedy language like Go. You could obviously use speedy languages before Go but their preferences made them not want to use them. For whatever reason Go is attractive to them.
I think that attraction of Go is that there is one build system, one debugger, one linter, etc. Having all these things be take responsibility by the language developers is a big plus as it avoids buck-passing and inconsistencies. While Go doesn't excite me at an emotional level, there are some things that it seems really good at.