I definitely understand your reasoning, but personally I don't see how I would be more productive by switching languages. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing, but I feel pretty dang productive with my current stack. And I'm working on a long term project for 90% of my time, so even if I could be more productive, I don't think I could justify re-writing 40k LoC.
I also don't really get emotional over the language choice... I'd ditch PHP in a second if it made sense to, but IMO a good architecture can enable development speed FAR better than a good language can. The language choice mostly just comes down to syntax preferences.
> , I don't think I could justify re-writing 40k LoC.
Absolutely, I agree with that as well! I would not rewrite something to a different languages unless there is a damn good reason for it. I'm not a person who generally rewrite stuff "for fun", so I think you're spot on here.
And I agree with you on the architecture/language comment as well, it's way more important. But I do think that the common practices of a language either helps/slows you down as well, so doing the same thing in two different languages can be implemented in different speeds.
> The language choice mostly just comes down to syntax preferences
Here is where I kind of disagree, but not fully. Yes, Java and C# are basically the same, in the end. Details are different, but mostly the same. Same goes for all languages in the Algol-group of languages, which C, JavaScript, Java, Python and more belongs to.
Then we have the Lisp-family of languages. They are very similar, within the group, but compared Lisp-like languages with Algol-like languages, the differences become way larger. Add languages like Erlang, which are way different, and you get some more differences.
So yeah, most of the language choices people do today, mostly come down to things around the language (ecosystem etc) rather than the language itself, because most people limit their choice to Algol-like languages.
In the end, I could not care less about the language you use, I'm not trying to force anyone to use what I find most productive. We all have preferences that speaks for us. But I wish someone tried to get me to dive into Lisp/Clojure earlier, and I think there are others who will feel the same, but again, I don't really care what others use.
I also don't really get emotional over the language choice... I'd ditch PHP in a second if it made sense to, but IMO a good architecture can enable development speed FAR better than a good language can. The language choice mostly just comes down to syntax preferences.
To each their own.