What language we should choose for our project? And where we should be searching?

Hello!

We are getting together for a new project, to build a 2-way API connectivity tool for programmers experimenting with new forms of e-commerce, and merchants operating across a range of e-commerce platforms. We would be grateful for any programming language choosing tips. We are looking for an experienced Full-stack/API Engineer to join our small team, to help us move fast and build a low latency and highly secure data exchange. Ideally someone that’s experienced in backend engineering and building scalable API products, but to also know Javascript, because of our frontend work which is underway. We are not sure which language would be the best for our backend in this case. We have created this post already. Could anyone help suggest where else we could post this requirement to find a knowledgable programmer to join us with this project?

Have a nice day everyone!

Ruby/Python/Node.js are all more than capable. I guess it really depends on what your job candidates are comfortable with and have the most experience using. I would pick a technology that is well known, has a ton of support out there for and can probably be picked up and understood by more than just your one candidate (what if they get hit by a bus?)

Once you have an idea of what language, do a little research on how much it will cost to get up and running with it. Does your hardware support it well? Can you stand something up quickly to start a prototype? Most good languages could get a basic 1 or 2 endpoint setup started in as little as a day or two.

Put it through a trial period where you try some examples with your prototype and see if it is working out after a week or so. If not, don’t be afraid to start over again with another language.

Thank you for your helpful response, Martyr2. I wonder why did you picked Ruby/Python/Node.js and not PHP or Java, just to make some examples? I’m really curious why do you recommend those 3 languages, especially as a frontend dev that doesn’t know much about backend, apart from some basic Node.js and PHP knowledge. After the research that I’ve done, I was left with more questions that answers, to be honest. Maybe there is somebody that yo uwould personally recommend for us? We are aiming for eastern Europe preferably for many reasons.

You might be going backwards. I see no emphasis on analysis, design and documentation.

Let me describe a worst-case situation. You hire someone that develops a good system but then you discover something that was overlooked. It will take time to fix. It might have taken no extra time to develop it correctly from the beginning but retro-fitting the system is costly. Then that happens multiple times and is very costly. Then you decide things are not working out. The system is not documented. Anyone inheriting the project has difficulty understanding it.

I agree it is a mistake to hire someone that has been educated in software analysis and design and no experience actually programming but it would be very beneficial to hire someone that is educated in both that is capable, emotionally and an ability and willingness to communicate, of delegating the project.

A fundamental issue of system analysis is to determine the requirements first then choosing the tools to do it. Consistent with that, choosing the language is best done when you know what the requirements are. And requirements are as non-technical as possible, except it might need to be very technical for whatever it supports. A banking system might be highly technical about banking.

The dilemma of course is what to do first. You need to hire people and in reality you need to decide what specialty (language) you want to hire. Therefore I understand pursuing that. I just want to suggest that the design is important. You need to put emphasis on that too.

In my opinion, PHP and Python are not the best choice. I suggest either Java or C#. C++ is likely to be a good choice in the future for websites but support of it for websites is likely not yet developed enough for you. The PHP language was initially designed by a relative hobbyist in terms of language design. Python is inconsistent and klugey, at least in my opinion. C++, Java and C# were designed by language specialists. JavaScript is also poorly designed. I think TypeScript is Microsoft’s attempt to improve JavaScript.

Here I am getting a little technical. There is something called WebAssembly that was originally developed to allow use of C++ in browsers but it is being used by many other languages too. I am not suggesting you use that but it is growing in popularity. I think the trend is away from JavaScript.

Python and Node.js should be a good fit. They are well-known and it won’t be hard to find a programmer who knows how to use it, plus they are capable of scaling alongside your business necessities without exhausting internal resources. I would recommend you to look closer at both of them and choose based on your business needs and project requirements. Find a comparison of Python and Node.js here.

When you choose the tech stack, you can start searching for a developer. Start from freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr or Freelancer.com since you are looking for one developer, not a team.

Thanks for asking your question! For programming language choice recommendations, it would be best to reach out to developers in the community and ask them directly. You can do this by posting on relevant Q&A forums such as Stack Overflow, Reddit, or Quora. Additionally, you may want to post a job listing on popular job boards such as Indeed, Monster, or Glassdoor. This will help you reach a wide range of developers and get valuable input from the community. Best of luck with your project!

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