Nope, you're stuck in the 80's mindset here, although I respect the true programmers who understand tight memory requirements and code for performance. I can't think of many instances where the project has driven the implementation language choice, unless you're writing a device driver or an embedded application. Programmers always want to use the latest and greatest language and development environment. Regarding object-oriented design, you contradicted yourself. On one hand, you say that it's easy to learn, but then you say that you can "dig yourself deep into a hole." That's exactly my point - it ain't easy to do it right. I'll take a solid design over a slightly messy implementation any time. Hell, give 'em garbage collection. I don't want to see the programmers spending hours debugging stack dumps or corrupt pointers, especially if it's a trading application where one needs to see results quickly.
IMHO: People tend to turn the whole thing into a religious issue. There is no best programming lauguage. It depends on the project, the existing resources, the deadline, etc. Good programmers will adapt to make a project work. Bad ones tend to do the opposite. To a three-year old with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A lot of time, there is nothing called right or wrong. Only whether you like it or not.
Businesses run on profits and not the need for lowest level programmers to enhance their ability to leave your company by pushing the newest wiz-bang tool that some vendor assures them will lead to increased salary dollars. I have consulted to large software companies and fortune 50 companies for many years and the programming staff always want to use things for reasons that have little to do with the business. Also, its rarely the case that faster equals better - Except for the simplest problem soutions that can be automated. Expert software and database engineers know the details of several paltforms as well as the theory behind desiging optimal solutions from scratch. And yes, a projects business and performance requirements should - and do - drive the implementation language and platform choice - except in the simplest situations.
How long do you think it takes for those .com kids or indian contractor to learn asp, vb and become proficient with it ("proficient" means that being able to brag some home made projects with these skills in a professional alike tongue during the interview ) There are way too many "professional" like this have got the 50K salary job, which also explains why IT industry in general has lost its fame so far in business people's mind.
After 3 months of learning to be a guru of any programming language, and then maybe another 2 or 3 months of learning this trading thingie, anyone could develop a trading system in only a few weeks that would generate more money that Grasso made last year.... You are right, I need to change my focus and "get real"!!! ramora (an alias)
3 months is good enough to get you started with any proramming language you favored. If you know how to "learn while doing it", it won't take long before you become a guru of any of these languages. Who said 3 months to create an effective trading system, or any effective business system? That's where years of experience and knowledge culmulates and pays. So, sorry if it confused you. But be rational is really what "get real" meant.
Of course it depends on what you intend to program, but for my money it has to be C++ - well supported, powerful and relatively easy to understand. I had previously spent time with VB but was guided towards C++ and I am very grateful for that guidance.
From a pure programming language point of view, c++ is the one. The computing world is splitted between Java and .Net that is comprised of c# and vb. Campus of either world would not hire professionals from other campus. However, neither campus has ever intended to get rid of c++, they simply can't. Quite a contray, whey they heard you've been doing c++, both campus tend to treat you as a better reputed programmer than their own simply because both Java and .Net evolved from c++ yet still struggling to prove to be better.
C++ is not an economically viable choice for portions of many projects. The reason that the C# and Java camps exist is to reduce development and testing time and to reduce the amount of work necessary to produce development frameworks - and to standardize these. In todays world a software engineer had better possess detailed knowledge of all three and understand the tradeoffs with respect to performance, testing, and development cost or they aren't much use to anyone - and really wont get hired in todays market.