Alex Deva
Programming

Programming

As you can see in the cv, I'm very much into computer programming and I even wrote a book about it. I know some programming languages -- not too many, but not so few either. This page reflects my view on programming.

1. It's very fashionable these days (actually for the past 8-9 years or so) to be a Java programmer. I know the language (although I'm not too good with it), but I don't like it, for reasons discussed here. In short, I submit that the advantages of Java are grossly overrated, that Java programmers too often assume that Java equals the "deus ex machina" of programming and forget about everything else, and that Java, as a programming phenomenon, does more harm than good globally.
2. Most of my professional work has been done in Perl-based frameworks. I also use C and C++ along with a healthy dose of bash. I *do* have to work with Java sometimes, but I prefer to let others do this part. My experience is proof, once more, that Java is not the (only) answer.
3. I've been crazy (or passionate) enough to actually believe that Damian Conway's Perligata (writing code in Latin) might be used for practical purposes. That's why I wrote the world's first website using Latin as a programming language. (I admit that my passion for all foreign languages had a role as well.)
4. I'm at my best when doing web development; in the past few years I've been involved in web projects of huge scale, and I also did some smaller projects. I'm also very much into intranets. I believe that the world wishes to get rid of standalone customized client applications, and switch to intranets (web-based applications running in a browser) instead. At my workplace I use Ruby on Rails a lot.
5. I don't think much of Agile Development. 
6. I prefer Apple computers. I currently own:
1. one 20'' iMac (2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 300 GB HDD)
2. one 13'' Macbook (1.83 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HDD)
3. one 14'' iBook (900MHz, 640MB RAM, 40GB HDD)
4. two iPods.