The languages look the same.

This nicely sums up what I feel whenever I hear a non-programmer talk about different but "similar" languages:

Different languages will frequently have similar syntax. Many a pointy-haired-boss has seen this similarity and thus assumed that, if their programmer knows C, then C++ should be easy, and if they know C++ then going into C# must be trivial. I mean, the languages look the same, so they must be the same, right? Boats and cars are steered by wheels, so clearly if you can drive a car you can pilot a boat, and nothing will go wrong. (emphasis mine)

From Dummy Round.


Written by Andrew Ittner in public on Sat 11 December 2021. Tags: commentary, programming, thedailywtf