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If Programming Languages Were Boats

I happened upon this hilarious post over at CompSci.ca Blog. It has certainly led to some great comments as well as some friendly debating among CS nerds…

Turing

Turing would definitely be a kayak. It’s small. It’s human powered. It’s often used as a beginner “boat.” And it’s also very Canadian.


photo by naokomc

Java

Java is a cargo ship. It’s very bulky. It’s very enterprise~y. Though it can also carry a lot of weight. Will carry a project, but not very fun to drive.


photo by cfarivar

Perl

Perl is a tugboat. Powerful enough to tug Java around, in 80 characters or less.


photo by xeeliz

Ruby

Ruby is difficult to describe. It’s sleek, sexy, and very fun to drive. Here’s a picture. Very trendy.


photo by Tony Falcon

C

C is a nuclear submarine. The instructions are probably in a foreign language, but all of the hardware itself is optimized for performance.


photo by Ryan C. McGinley

HTML

HTML isn’t really a programming language boat.


photo by ascendeddaniel

Personally, I was surprised that Python was left off the list. But I was delighted to see what commenter “jpc” wrote:

Python would be a catamaran. Light and functional, with conspicuous spacing.

What kind of boat would your favorite programming language be?

  • Joe

    I would’ve characterized Perl as an amphicar: loved by enthusiasts that see it as something that can do everything, seen for its leaks and unfriendliness by everyone else.

    June 15, 2011 at 10:09 pm Reply
  • Joe

    C#: see Java, named U.S.S. Microsoft.

    June 15, 2011 at 10:19 pm Reply
  • Diego Russo

    What about assembly? I think that assembly could be the swimming 🙂

    June 16, 2011 at 4:20 am Reply
  • Leonardo

    And PHP ????

    June 16, 2011 at 4:36 am Reply
  • Hayden

    Php is a junk… It seems to do the job but you dont know what anything is named

    June 16, 2011 at 3:40 pm Reply
  • Larry Battle

    APL is a like a Guitar boat. It’s strange but you’ll get there.
    http://declubz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/guitar-boat.jpg

    June 18, 2011 at 5:50 pm Reply

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