Python : Pythonista / Ruby: Rubyist : / D : ?

[Vasudev Ram via Digitalmars-d]

On Saturday, 22 April 2017 at 04:20:40 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
wrote:
> On Friday, April 21, 2017 17:20:14 Vasudev Ram via 
> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I hope the question is self-evident from the message subject. 
>> If not, it means: what are D developers generally called (to 
>> indicate that they develop in D)? The question occurred to me 
>> somehow while browsing some D posts on the forums just now.
>>
>> DLanger? DLangist? D'er? Doer? :)
>>
>> I tend to favor DLanger, FWIW.
>>
>> Interested to know, just for fun ...
>>
>> I do realize that there may not be commonly known or accepted 
>> terms like this for all languages. For example, I don't know 
>> if there is such a term for a C or C++ developer. Might make 
>> for an interesting thread.
>
> I've never heard of anyone doing anything like this in any 
> language. Normally, you'd just say that someone is a D 
> programmer or a C++ programmer or a Java Programmer, etc. But 
> then again, I come from a C++ background, not a scripting 
> language background, and the folks who primarily use scripting 
> languages often tend to look at things differently.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

I gave the examples of the terms Pythonista and Rubyist right in 
the message subject. You personally might not have heard of them 
or similar ones, as you say. But others have. Those terms are 
used somewhat widely [1] - "Pythonista" is often by Python 
programmers to refer to themselves (sometimes Pythoneer is used), 
and "Rubyist" is often used by Ruby programmers to refer to 
themselves (individually or collectively, as in, "I'm a 
Pythonista" (sometimes seen on blogs' About pages or Twitter or 
LinkedIn bios) or "(us/as) Pythonistas" and other variations of 
the same. Ditto for Rubyists. Another example I've seen used is 
Lisper (and Lisp is both a compiled and interpreted language - so 
it's not like such a term is restricted only to scripting or 
interpreted languages).

[1] Using the word "widely" anecdotally, of course - obviously 
I've not done a survey on something as trivial as this - it's 
just that I've been in the field for quite a while, working, 
interacting with people, reading forums, etc. - and have noticed 
it used quite often. And I've used Ruby for a few years and 
Python for many years now, both of them in commercial projects, 
Python in commercial training that I give, as well as for my own 
personal projects (mainly Python only).

Secondly, using those terms does not mean they are formal 
designations of any kind. They are just casual terms that someone 
must have initially made up and that others caught on to and 
started using, to describe themselves and their community - i.e. 
Python or Ruby _users_, not all of whom are necessarily users of 
those languages _alone. Plenty of Python and Ruby developers use 
other languages too, including compiled / statically typed ones, 
like C, C++, Java, etc. I am one of them, in fact - I've used 
both C (and on DOS, Windows and Unix, a lot) and Pascal (Turbo 
Pascal a lot, Delphi some) earlier, Java some too. (See my other 
reply upcoming after this one - to Russel Winder). In general, 
those terms are not meant to be either pejorative or the reverse 
of pejorative, although some people may of course use the terms 
disparagingly, self-glorifyingly or whatever.

>But then again, I come from a C++ background, not a scripting
> language background, and the folks who primarily use scripting 
> languages often tend to look at things differently.

Yes, if a person comes from only (either) one of those 
backgrounds - then they are more likely to look at things 
differently. But there are lots of people who have backgrounds in 
both (scripting/interpreted and compiled), and some have a lot of 
background in both, too.