Everytime one trend or technology replaces another, there is a period of instability, and those who hold onto the old ways make pronouncements of the superiority of their ways. Usually, the pronouncements are made after the tipping point has already occurred, but whether it’s globalization (who was Marco Polo anyway?), musical genres, or automation, the pattern of behavior when transformations occur remains the same.

If you remember when AOL began permitting their users to access newsgroups or IRC channels, many old-time Internet addicts began criticizing the newbies who weren’t familiar with “proper” netiquette.

When desktop publishing brought low-cost tools to the non-publisher, professional designers were pulling their hair out at the lack of design aesthetics in the heathens’ documents.

Mainframe developers laughed at the upstart mini- (and then micro-) computer programmers with their toy OSes and development tools. Then the Mac was released and DOS programmers criticized it as a toy. Then Java was promoted when the Internet became a critical component of gaining information, but again, professionals pooh-poohed it and the CGI languages like Perl, PHP and the like used to serve up pages.

So it’s no surprise that professionals in the software trade should mock the use of dynamic languages, or scripting, in the development of software applications. Oh, but now they’re no longer off-handedly dismissing the use of dynamic languages altogether. Now, in an acknowledgment of the superiority and ubiquity of dynamic languages in developing web apps, these laggards qualify their definition of where their tools fit within professional development. No longer are their old tools and standards The One True Way For Ever And Ever, Amen. Now, it’s The One True Way For Desktop Applications.

There are too many classes of problems which are better served by newer languages. There are problems which just aren’t served by the third-generation languages favored by these “professionals”. And given that dynamic recompilation, or Just-In-Time technologies, can solve many performance criticisms leveled against their use, serious professionals can have their cake and eat it too.

Certainly, dynamic languages lower the learning curve for writing software, and those unacquainted with the importance of structured methodologies, error handling and the like will frustrate seasoned developers. But the simplification of programming tools will continue to progress and then those who’ve gained in experience within the current landscape will gnash their teeth at the noobs who come in polluting their communities and beloved computing environments.

Take a rational look at the programming landscape and you’ll discover that dynamic languages won’t overtake the use of traditional languages in the development of software. They already have.