A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away I was a programmer by profession. This was in the days of Mainframe COBOL programs. Over the years I have gradually found myself becoming a SysAdmin. While I do less "real" programming now, I have picked up a number of different languages like perl, php, shell, C/C++, etc. Recently I have found myself thinking about the differences in programming languages and it seems to me that there are two basic kind of languages. For lack of better terms I'll call them "Standards Based" and "Internet Based". These two branches have some interesting differences that might not be apparent at first glance.
What do I mean by Standards Based languages? These are languages that are generally defined by ISO standards committees. For the purpose of this piece we'll consider the following languages to be in this category: Ada, C, C++, COBOL, Pascal & SmallTalk. And as for Internet Based languages, we'll use Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby & Tcl/Tk. So what is the significant differences between these two camps? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using one or the other? Glad you asked.
One of the advantages of the Internet Based languages is the fact that they are languages that have grown up and proliferated on the Internet. Being designed and built to work in the online world, they can easily do things that other languages can't or must be shoehorned into doing. Even though C and C++ are quite capable of dealing with the 'Net, they aren't as at home as, say, Java. With the Internet Based languages you can develop and implement a system or application in a much easier fashion than with the others. These languages also had the advantage of being able to learn from the older ones, making what had previously been difficult much simpler. However there are also some down sides to them.
The most noticeable one is, ironically enough, one of their considered strengths; the speed with which they evolve. The language definitions for PHP, Python, Ruby and even Perl & Java are done at light speed. It's lucky if a language lasts for a few years before being massively updated. While this is fun for developers doing small, cutting-edge work and those doing R&D, it's not so good if you need to build an application for a large production system. I've been involved with a massive online system that's been built in Java. The application works fine but the amount of work that the developers have to do to maintain and enhance it with older versions of Java is not insignificant.
With the older languages there's much more long-term stability. You don't find major changes in the language definitions happening at such a fast pace. A program written in Ada or C++ twenty years ago will still compile and run on today's platforms. These languages are not stagnant, however. The current C standard is C99 and it may surprised you to know that the most up to date language is COBOL with the current standard dated 2002. Standards Based languages, by definition, are standardized and stable. This does make for slow adaptation to changes in the IT/IS world, such as the development of WiFi and other new technologies. This adaptability/stability aspect is, as I said earlier, both an advantage and a disadvantage for each of the different models of languages.
Programming languages are tools. They have strengths and weaknesses and most seasoned developers have an idea of them. However, the speed of it's evolution is often an overlooked aspect of a language. Sometimes, slow and steady is better than fast and new.