Choosing A Programming Language (Unit 06)

Factors that may influence the choice of a programming language

There are different factors in programming language, such as; organisational policy, suitability, availability of staff, reliability, development, expandability and maintenance costs.

Organisational policy - Companies have an organisational policy as to what programs they are going to use. It is also important to think about platforms that the language can run on. For example, Apple industries have a policy to only use Apple software.

Suitability (Features & Tools) - Different programming languages offer different features and tools, this is due to each language having it's own integrated IDE. Certain tools and features can benefit and speed up programming so it is best to choose the programming language that best suits your needs.

Reliability - When choosing a programming language it is best to think about how reliable it is and the possibility of it crashing. A language that is not very dependable is unlikely to be chosen as it is best to have a reliable program. Depending what environment the program is being used the reliability of the programs being used may vary, an example of this is on an airplane. Programs being used on an airplane are required to be as reliable as possible as failures could cause death for passengers.

Availability of trained staff - It is important to consider the fact that there may be existing staff that have previous training in certain programming languages. This is important because if they were to ignore this and choose a different language it would lead to extra costs that may not have been necessary. 

Costs - When programming you should be immediately aware of the costs. These costs can consist of development costs, maintenance costs, wages, software price and time. The cost of developing a program can vary vastly depending on what programming language the programmer has chosen, when considering the costs one should take into account the IDE of a programming language as the program with the better IDE for the situation is likely to be better and more cost efficient.

Expandability - When choosing a programming language it is important to consider the size of the organization you are creating the program for. Some programming languages cannot support many simultaneous users whereas other can support thousands.