And then there's {favourite-language}...
{br}
{favourite-language} is like "that girl."  You know the one...
{br}
You never really went steady, but you'd run into her from time to time
while knocking around in disreputable joints, usually late at night,
every several months or so.  She looked so hot, so sleek, so sexy, so
expressive, so exotic.  You'd end up back at her place and the night
would just...  take off.  A complete blur of hot, sweaty, feverish,
delirious, fumbling passion.  You'd do things to each other...  you'd
do things to her, she'd do things to you...  things that you're not
even sure have names, that you're pretty sure are illegal almost
anywhere.  Even her kinks have kinks --- and after one of these
nights, you'd realize that you yourself had a lot more kinks than you.
And it wasn't just physical, it was --- cerebral.  Ethereal.
Transcendent.  But it would all whiz by in a blur, and by morning
you'd find yourself lightheaded, a bit confused, and stumbling
homeward to your regular gal.
{br}
Over the next few days and weeks you'd find yourself occasionally
drifting away, thinking about her.  {favourite-language}.  You'd be
there, banging away at your regular girl, and find yourself thinking
"you know, if I was with {favourite-language}, I'd be doing this
completely differently."  You'd think "I could be doing so much bigger
and better stuff with {favourite-language}."  Now, your regular girl,
she's not as exotic as {favourite-language}.  Pretty, maybe, if you're
lucky.  (Perhaps your regular girlfriend's name is
{work-language}. ;-) But not nearly as --- weird.  Wild.  Cool.
Exciting.  Don't get me wrong --- your girl, she's wonderful.  You've
got a wonderful relationship.  She's --- comfortable.  You can bang
away at her all day and night.  She's accommodating.  Easy going.  You
work well together.  But --- confidentially --- she's, well, maybe
just a little bit boring.  You'd catch yourself thinking these things,
and the guilty pangs would get to you...  You'd quash the thoughts,
buckle down, and get back to banging away.  Comfortable...  there's a
lot to be said for that, ya know?  Comfortable...  just keep telling
yourself that.
{br}
Months would go by.  Late some night you'd find yourself out,
disreputable places again.  Maybe that hacker bar, {bar}.  Somebody'd
slip you an URL for some renegade paper, you know, one of *those*
papers.  You'd run into {favourite-language} again.  And the whole
thing starts over.
{br}
Eventually, you're going to get the ultimatum.  {favourite-language}'s
ultimately just like any other girl on some level; she needs
commitment.  Eventually, after one night of wild, feverish, kinky,
abstract passion, she's going to say to you: "All these times, and you
don't understand me at all!  You know, you're going to have to get
serious, mister!  I've got needs, too.  You're going to have to get
serious about my {particular-stuff}, or that's the last time you're
going to play with them!  Got it?"
{br}
...and then, you've got to make The Choice.
{br}
Chances are, you're going to go back to your regular gal.
{favourite-language}'s just too much for any one man, probably.  She
leaves a trail of broken, brainy, embittered PhDs and former
programmers behind her.  She ruins you for the RealWorld.  You can
ride a while, but you probably can't go the distance with her.  Go
back to your regular gal and try not to think too much about what
you've seen.  Done.  Felt.  Thought.
{br}
Maybe you can salvage a little happiness; but it'll be hard.  After
all...  you've tasted {favourite-language}.
{br}
She's not like anything else.
{br}
Original post: http://www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/Week-of-Mon-20070219/044101.html
{br}
{br}
(It's intended in good humour (and just a demonstration of the Threepenny library). Haskell is my favourite programming language, and I like
this mailing list message, but anyone with a brain can realise it's
easy to replace the word "Haskell" with "Lisp" or "Vim" or whatever
you prefer and suddenly it's stroking your sense of identity, the post
is lacking in any content… when you're next reading evangelism, try
swapping the names with other technologies in your head, it's funny.)