Directory of Comparison and Review Resources

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This category holds web pages and sites that compare two or more programming languages, on one or more variable, via text, feature lists, tables, code samples, equations, pictures, jokes, or any other means, sensible or nonsensical. To qualify for this page, submissions must be about, and of interest to, those interested in, more than one language. On this page, languages are arranged in three groups and levels: 1) Top group: issues spanning multiple unrelated languages. 2) Middle group: components, frameworks. 3) Bottom group: specific languages, with their own category.

Subcategories

• Ada
• Component Frameworks
• History
• Humor
• Java
• Object-Oriented
• Perl
• Python
• REBOL

Resources in This Category

• 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

  http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/
  Shows source code implementation for the same simple program across over 250 different programming languages.

• A Comparative Overview of C#

  http://genamics.com/developer/csharp_comparative.htm
  Also compares C#, Java, C++. By Ben Albahari.

• Accumulator Generator

  http://www.paulgraham.com/accgen.html
  Compares canonical solutions to same problem as code samples in: C++, Dylan, E, Erlang, Haskell, JavaScript, Lisp (Arc, Common, Goo, Scheme), Lua, Maple, Mathematica, Oz-Mozart, NewtonScript, Perl, Python, REBOL, Ruby, Smalltalk, VBScript. [Paul Graham]

• Ada 95, Java, and C++

  http://www.adahome.com/Resources/Languages/chart3.html
  Some think Java is like C++. Usual C++ idioms do not apply to Java as it is not a C++ superset or subset; Java is a derivation with many modifications, extensions. Both language syntax are alike, but semantics and philosophy are very different. Java is nearer Ada 95 than C++, except in syntax.

• Ada, C, C++, and Java vs. The Steelman

  http://www.adahome.com/History/Steelman/steeltab.htm
  Compares 4 programming languages (Ada 95, C, C++, Java) with the needs of "Steelman", original 1978 requirements document for Ada language. Big detailed table.

• An Empirical Comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl

  http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer2000.pdf
  By Lutz Prechelt. Neutral, quantitative analysis of 7 languages in title, for 7 variables, via 80 implementations of the same requirement set. PDF format. [IEEE Computer]

• An Empirical Comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl for a Search/string-processing Program

  http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprtTR.pdf
  One set of requirements, 80 implementations, coded by 74 different programmers in various languages, compared for properties: run time, memory use, source text length, comment density, program structure, reliability, effort needed.

• Are Scripting Languages the Wave of the Future?

  http://www.itworld.com/itw-0314-rcmappdevint
  Programming guru, Robert Martin, on languages of the coming decade. [ITworld.com]

• C# Strikes a Chord

  http://www.drdobbs.com/c-strikes-a-chord/184404409
  Compares 4 languages: C, C++, C#, Java. Shows family genealogy. [Dr. Dobb's Journal]

• C#: A Language Alternative or Just J--?, Part 1

  http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-11-2000/jw-1122-csharp1.html
  Compares C# to Java, describes features and design trade-offs, places C# in context of broader Microsoft .Net strategy. Text, tables, code samples, links. By Mark Johnson. First article of 2-part series. [JavaWorld]

• CLOS, Eiffel, and Sather: A Comparison

  http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~sather/Publications/tr-91-047.html
  References, zipped Postscript, and inlined gifs.

• Comparisons of Tcl with Other Systems

  http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/sai/ss96/uxdb2/comparison.html
  Many comparisons between Tcl/Tk and other similar systems, most copied from comp.lang.tcl.

• D vs Other Languages

  http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/comparison.html
  Yes-No table with definitions compares D, C, C++, C#, Java, on: GC, functions, arrays, OOP, performance, reliability, compatibility, conditional compiling. [Digital Mars]

• Eiffel and Delphi Compared

  http://www.berenddeboer.net/eiffel/eiffel_and_delphi.html
  Text compares differences of several main aspects.

• Forth and Not C

  http://www.inventio.co.uk/forthnc.htm
  Pro-Forth text explains why C is used more than Forth.

• Forth Versus C

  http://www.inventio.co.uk/forthvsc.htm
  Pro-Forth question and answer text, some questions have several answers.

• Four-fold Increase in Productivity and Quality

  http://www.erlang.se/publications/Ulf_Wiger.pdf
  Published internal study, of Ericsson AXD 301 ATM switch project, using Erlang, C, C++, Java. Results: programmer productivity, code error rates, roughly proportional to source code size.

• Guidelines for Choosing a Computer Language: Support for the Visionary Organizations

  http://archive.adaic.com/docs/reports/lawlis/content.htm
  Multipage study compares: 4GL/5GL, 3GL (Ada 95, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Java, Smalltalk), 2GL (Assembly). Divides language (definition) from traits of products that implement and support it. Several sections, tables, appendixes.

• Java and C++ Resource Management Comparison

  http://www.fatalmind.com/papers/java_vs_cplusplus/resource.pdf
  Detailed discussion of the techniques used in Java and C++ to implement leak free and exception safe resource management. Covers memory management, finalizers, destructors and finally blocks with examples.

• Languages Versus D

  http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?LanguagesVersusD
  Growing table compares D, C, C++, C#, Java, Delphi, Python, Perl, Eiffel, Sather, Smalltalk, Lisp/CLOS, Ada. Many clarifying comments below. [Wiki4D, Open Content]

• Lisp as an Alternative to Java

  http://www.norvig.com/java-lisp.html
  Brief text on comparisons of C, C++, Java, Lisp, Ron Garret / Erann Gat study, with conforming example program Lisp source code; very useful links.

• Lisp as an Alternative to Java

  http://www.flownet.com/gat/papers/lisp-java.pdf
  Ron Garret / Erann Gat comparison, starts from 1999 Prechelt study results, adds many insights; as text, a few tables. [Intelligence]

• Multi-Core Ant Colony Optimization for TSP in Erlang

  http://eric_rollins.home.mindspring.com/erlangAnt.html
  Compares Erlang, GHC Haskell, Standard ML (Alice, MLton); text, tables, graphs.

• Nine Language Performance Round-up: Benchmarking Math & File I/O

  http://www.osnews.com/story/5602
  Small-scale benchmark test run on 9 languages or variants: Java 1.3.1 and 1.4.2, C via gcc 3.3.1, Python 2.3.2 and via Psyco 1.1.1, 4 from Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003: Visual Basic/C#/C++/J#.

• Perl vs. Python vs. Ruby

  http://mjtsai.com/blog/2002/11/25/perl_vs_python_vs_ruby/
  Comparison with text, code samples, many reader comments. Michael Tsai weblog.

• PLEAC: Programming Language Examples Alike Cookbook

  http://pleac.sourceforge.net/
  Suite of common programming problems solved in Ada, C++, Erlang, Guile, Haskell, Java, Masd, merd, NASM, Objective Caml, Perl, Pliant, Python, Ruby, Tcl.

• Programming Information from HB

  http://www.cybercomm.nl/~broers/programming.html
  Text descriptions compare C/C++, Java, Pascal, Basic, VeraStream; Oracle; HTML, XML; JavaScript, PHP.

• Programming Language Benchmarks

  http://dan.corlan.net/bench.html
  Compares the same program in Ada, C, Forth, FORTRAN, Java, Lisp, Perl, R, Ruby. Goal: support decisions in language choice for making compute-intensive Web programs. Text, table, code samples.

• Programming Language Comparison

  http://www.jvoegele.com/software/langcomp.html
  Table and text compares many features of some popular object-oriented languages: C++, C#, Eiffel, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, Visual Basic.

• Programming Languages Mini-howto

  http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Programming-Languages.html
  Briefly compares major Linux programming languages: C, C++, Fortran, Java, Lisp, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl; by Risto S. Varanka.

• Programming Languages Study

  http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-study/
  Includes: diagram, history of languages; history of language concepts; syntax across languages; Scriptometer measures scripting ease of languages; mutability and sharing of various values in various languages.

• Python Compared to Other Languages

  https://wiki.python.org/moin/LanguageComparisons
  Many links to comparisons involving Python.

• Qtime Collection, FTP Download, Gzipped

  ftp://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/devel/lang/misc/
  Display time as English sentence, coded in: AWK, C, ICI, Icon, JavaScript, Lite/mSQL, PHP3, Pike, Python, REBOL, Rexx, Ruby, SLang, Spanner. Tested on only Linux (all) and AmigaOS (C and Rexx versions).

• Ray Tracer Language Comparison

  http://www.ffconsultancy.com/languages/ray_tracer/
  Mini ray tracer benchmark written equivalently in C++, Java, SML, Objective Caml, Lisp, Scheme. Compares verbosity, performance; text, code samples, tables, image, graph. [Flying Frog Consultancy]

• Reasons for TOM

  http://gerbil.org/tom/doc/why.shtml
  TOM attempts to address flaws in these languages: C++, Cecil, Common Lisp, Eiffel, Java, Objective-C, Smalltalk.

• Schizoid Classes: Of Class, Type, and Method

  http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=205
  Compares Java and Smalltalk, in text and table. By Rodney Bates. [ACM Queue]

• Simple Programs in Various Different Programming Languages

  http://cer.freeshell.org/renma/
  Common algorithms and other sample code in the languages: Bash and Bourne shells, C/C++, Java, MATLAB/Octave, Perl, Python, Ruby, Scheme.

• Syntax Across Languages

  http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-study/syntax-across-languages.html
  Operator names and syntax elements in various programming languages.

• Team Eiffel: The Zen of Python, Part I

  http://teameiffel.blogspot.com/2006/06/zen-of-python-part-i.html
  Text compares Python and Eiffel, via Tim Peters' Zen rules.

• The BNF Web Club Language

  http://cui.unige.ch/db-research/Enseignement/analyseinfo/
  Browse, explore some programming language syntax rules, see relations between rules, understand them via BNF (Backus-Naur Form notation) and syntactic diagrams: SQL, PL/SQL, SQL2, IDL; Ada 95, Java, Modula-2; Lazy, Lisp, M5.

• The C Family of Languages

  http://www.gotw.ca/publications/c_family_interview.htm
  Interview with Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, James Gosling.

• The Case against C

  http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~mjr/C/
  Five short essays compare C (and C++ by extension) to Fortran: Why C is Not a Good Numerical Language, Why C is Not a Good First Language, C's Poor Loop Constructs, C's Pointers and Optimisation, Optimisation through Directives.

• The Computer Language Benchmarks Game

  http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/
  Performance measurements and source code for multiple benchmark programs in different languages; with side-by-side comparisons between any two programming language implementations, and interactive boxplot chart comparisons between any 15.

• The Quine Page

  http://www.nyx.net/~gthompso/quine.htm
  Collection of self-reproducing programs: each outputs a copy of its own source code; about 60 languages.

• TIOBE Programming Community Index: TPCI

  http://www.tiobe.com/content/paperinfo/tpci/
  Updated monthly. Shows language popularity via world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses, 3rd party vendors. Calculated from search engines Google, MSN, Yahoo.

• TMXxine Languages

  http://www.cyber-shaktipat.org/relax/languages.html
  Brief comparison Curl with High Level assembler, BCX, Dark Basic, Mono (C#/.Net implementation), Python, Squeak, XBasic/XBlite. Curl applet examples.

• University of Michigan's Language Guide

  http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/
  Each entry includes history, description, code examples, and references.

• What I Hate About Your Programming Language

  http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/05/12/languagephilosophy.html
  Text treats general aspects of language choices, then compares hatred of Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C, C++, JavaScript, XSLT, SQL. With many forum comments. [ONLamp.com]

• What Languages Fix

  http://paulgraham.com/fix.html
  Compares many languages in brief text, describes each by the problem it fixes. [Paul Graham]

• What's Wrong with Perl

  http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/text/perl.html
  Author explains what he considers wrong about Perl, presents Python as an alternative. Descriptions, code samples, links.

• Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language

  http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html
  Brian Kernighan's comparison of Pascal and C

• Why to Move from ASM to C

  http://www.scienceprog.com/why-to-move-from-asm-to-c/
  Brief text compares Assembly to C; lower to higher level language. ScienceProg.

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