New Chapter: Languages are more than syntax

content/books/things-i-learnt/_index.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ template = "section-contentless.html"
 		* [Tests Make Better APIs](tests-apis)
 		* [Make Tests That You Know How To Run On The Command Line](tests-in-the-command-line)
 		* [Good Languages Come With Tests](languages-tests)
-	* Documentating your code
+	* Documenting your code
 		* [Documentation Is A Love Letter To Your Future Self](document-it)
 		* [The Function Documentation Is Its Contract](document-is-contract)
 		* [If A Function Description Includes An "And", It's Wrong](document-and)
@@ -28,3 +28,5 @@ template = "section-contentless.html"
 		* [Future Thinking Is Future Trashing](future-trashing)
 		* [Don't Use Booleans As Parameters](boolean-parameters)
 		* [Beware of Interface Changes](interface-changes)
+* Community/Teams
+	* [A Language Is Much More Than A Language](languages-are-more)

content/books/things-i-learnt/interface-changes/index.md

@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ you can finally kill the original function.
 function as deprecated and _add a sleep at the start of the function_, in a
 way that people using the old function are forced to update.)
 
-{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/boolean-parameters", prev_chapter_title="Don't Use Booleans As Parameters") }}
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/boolean-parameters", prev_chapter_title="Don't Use Booleans As Parameters", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/languages-are-more", next_chapter_title="A Language Is Much More Than A Language") }}

content/books/things-i-learnt/languages-are-more/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
++++
+title = "Things I Learnt The Hard Way - A Language Is Much More Than A Language"
+date = 2019-06-24
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-au", "books", "things i learnt", "languages", "community", "ecosystem"]
++++
+
+Picking a programming language is much more than just picking the words that
+will generate a code. They come with a community, a leadership, an ecosystem
+and a thread the binds them all together.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+Programming languages, in essence, are simply a bunch of keywords that make
+things "go". But besides those keywords, they also bring their community, the
+way the leaders deal with the community, the tools created by the leaders or
+community to deal with the minutiae of creating a system, the way those tools
+interact with each other.
+
+While a language may have a simple syntax, it may be that the ones controlling
+the language actually don't give two shits -- if you pardon my French -- to
+the community. They focus on solving _their_ problems, not the community
+problems.
+
+Or maybe the community has duplicate tools -- which is not a problem -- but
+that developers of each tool don't talk to each other. Or worse: They simply
+refuse to look what other tools are doing, which could be used to improve
+their own.
+
+And maybe that third language is not as simple as others, but the leadership
+is always discussing things with the community, being transparent on their
+decision, allowing the community to discuss the future of the language and
+even different groups building tools decided to merge efforts to give the
+community better tools.
+
+That's why you can't "pick" a language by its syntax alone. That's only the
+surface of what the whole of a language encapsulates and if you ignore the
+other elements in it, you may find yourself with a cute language in a
+community that is always fighting and never going forward.
+
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/interface-changes", prev_chapter_title="Beware of Interface Changes") }}