I've got to come in on Dave's side on this one. He does not say that "technology hasn't changed." Here is what he says:
"And if you think there's much difference between JavaScript and C, you're dreaming. Or between JSON and XML or plain text files. These are gratuitous reinventions."
Bear in mind that he is taking a very high level view here, and think about what he's saying again. Are not JSON and XML, fundamentally, simply better ways to put structured data into text files with formats everyone can agree on? Sure, they are better approaches than what preceded them (CSV? random ad-hoc formats?), but fundamentally, if I said the previous sentence to a programmer who gone into a coma in 1985 and just now woke up, wouldn't they understand it pretty quickly?
As for JavaScript and C, well, the syntax is C-like, and you add closures, a class system, and some standard scripting language features like built-in containers and a slack typing model, as far as I can tell from coming up to speed on it recently. Wouldn't this stuff be familiar to someone who'd learned and coded in a number of different languages in their career? Surely with a few examples to follow they could be up to speed quickly.
Now, of course he's exaggerating, and venting a bit as well. But for a programmer with a lot of experience, these innovations don't seem that special. Good ideas, sure, but not enough to make everything you've learned obsolete.
"And if you think there's much difference between JavaScript and C, you're dreaming. Or between JSON and XML or plain text files. These are gratuitous reinventions."
Bear in mind that he is taking a very high level view here, and think about what he's saying again. Are not JSON and XML, fundamentally, simply better ways to put structured data into text files with formats everyone can agree on? Sure, they are better approaches than what preceded them (CSV? random ad-hoc formats?), but fundamentally, if I said the previous sentence to a programmer who gone into a coma in 1985 and just now woke up, wouldn't they understand it pretty quickly?
As for JavaScript and C, well, the syntax is C-like, and you add closures, a class system, and some standard scripting language features like built-in containers and a slack typing model, as far as I can tell from coming up to speed on it recently. Wouldn't this stuff be familiar to someone who'd learned and coded in a number of different languages in their career? Surely with a few examples to follow they could be up to speed quickly.
Now, of course he's exaggerating, and venting a bit as well. But for a programmer with a lot of experience, these innovations don't seem that special. Good ideas, sure, but not enough to make everything you've learned obsolete.