Change languages is the only way so far, to step-out serious blind-spots in the previous language. Is a shame that langs are rarely fixed, only added more and more features without learning anything in the process. Devs are so change adverse that is not even funny.
I have done a lot of business/enterprise development (a very hostile space to innovation and working solo or with very small teams), and have done small-to-largeish (from my POV) rewrites in several languages.
From:
- Fox 2.6 to Visual FoxPro. A breaking change in a lot of ways, a total win in the process. Not just because the app was native windows now.
- From Fox to Delphi. Now I discover the beauty of Pascal and improve the app and deployment scenario. Static types is a net win overall. My other love is python, probable code faster on it, but have FAR LESS trouble with strong type systems.
(However take a me some years in note how bad all languages are aside the DBase Family in talk with databases, but other wins distract me from that...)
- Visual Fox to .NET (1.0, 1.1 with both Visual Basic and C#) was a total net loss. A Massive increase in code size, yet the (desktop) apps were way slower than Visual FoxPro, even more than Delphi (but my boss not let me use Delphi).
The web was also terrible in performance and complexity. Sadly back in the day I was unaware of how do web properly and drink all the MS KoolAid on this.
This sink the project and almost the company. Only saved returning back to full FoxPro.
- To Python. I move several things to python, mainly .NET stuff. How boy, how big was the win. The net reduction in code size and the clarity of the code!
Also, (web) apps way faster. Take .NET some years in learn the way here, so...
- To RDBMS (Heck, even sqlite): Still big wins when someone else try to use a nosql/desktop datase (in my space, NOBODY is Facebook. With no exception, step-out of a RDBMS is one of the biggest mistakes)
- To F#: I return to .NET past year (because MS do a lot of the right moves to fix old mistakes!!!) and again a lot of reduction in code size, removing of problematic logic obscured by years of OO-only code. Still not happy about the way lower quality tooling, but enduring it even in Xamarin Mobile because I see the benefit.
I wish I could use swift for Android, so F#/.NET is my only sane option left...
----
Mainly, move from a lang to another that is not similar, help in see the problems with the old one. Learn new or better ways to solve stuff, and get access to different toolsets and mindsets. This payback when returning back to the old, too, when this ideas are migrated.
I have done a lot of business/enterprise development (a very hostile space to innovation and working solo or with very small teams), and have done small-to-largeish (from my POV) rewrites in several languages.
From:
- Fox 2.6 to Visual FoxPro. A breaking change in a lot of ways, a total win in the process. Not just because the app was native windows now.
- From Fox to Delphi. Now I discover the beauty of Pascal and improve the app and deployment scenario. Static types is a net win overall. My other love is python, probable code faster on it, but have FAR LESS trouble with strong type systems.
(However take a me some years in note how bad all languages are aside the DBase Family in talk with databases, but other wins distract me from that...)
- Visual Fox to .NET (1.0, 1.1 with both Visual Basic and C#) was a total net loss. A Massive increase in code size, yet the (desktop) apps were way slower than Visual FoxPro, even more than Delphi (but my boss not let me use Delphi).
The web was also terrible in performance and complexity. Sadly back in the day I was unaware of how do web properly and drink all the MS KoolAid on this.
This sink the project and almost the company. Only saved returning back to full FoxPro.
- To Python. I move several things to python, mainly .NET stuff. How boy, how big was the win. The net reduction in code size and the clarity of the code!
Also, (web) apps way faster. Take .NET some years in learn the way here, so...
- To RDBMS (Heck, even sqlite): Still big wins when someone else try to use a nosql/desktop datase (in my space, NOBODY is Facebook. With no exception, step-out of a RDBMS is one of the biggest mistakes)
- To F#: I return to .NET past year (because MS do a lot of the right moves to fix old mistakes!!!) and again a lot of reduction in code size, removing of problematic logic obscured by years of OO-only code. Still not happy about the way lower quality tooling, but enduring it even in Xamarin Mobile because I see the benefit.
I wish I could use swift for Android, so F#/.NET is my only sane option left...
----
Mainly, move from a lang to another that is not similar, help in see the problems with the old one. Learn new or better ways to solve stuff, and get access to different toolsets and mindsets. This payback when returning back to the old, too, when this ideas are migrated.