Template Metaprogramming Made Easy (Huh?)

[language_fan]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:34:54 +0200, Don thusly wrote:

> dsimcha wrote:
>> == Quote from Nick Sabalausky (a at a.a)'s article
>>> In general though, I find the "programmer time is more expensive than
>>> hardware" line to largely be a cop-out.
>> 
>> Fair enough, but can you elaborate on this?  Of course hardware is
>> getting cheaper relative to programming time.  This is obvious to
>> anyone who doesn't live under a rock.  My previous post was pointing
>> out how this is relevant in case that was less obvious.
> 
> Probably because you need to consider maintenance time. Poor quality
> ends up costing you in the long term. Good quality code gets reused.

Another point related to maintenance costs is the choice of language. 
Many smaller companies choose "easier" languages like php, visual basic, 
or python for their applications because they outsource library writing 
and it is much cheaper and easier to hire new workforce for business 
logic when the existing codebase does not use any complex idioms or 
language constructs. Some indian schoolboy can write e.g. php pages $1-2/
h, a hard-core C++/Haskell professional easily costs $500/h.