The comment that upset you made a joke about their code and the tools from the late 90s. It seems you took it as a personal insult as if they were directly talking to you or about your code. It is a really odd thing over which you to get defensive. I have no horse in this race and I would never judge anyone’s expertise solely on the tools they use (given that it might not even be their choice). But between the two of you one made a very dry joke and the other got defensive for no reason when the conversation wasn’t about them.
The tools we use don’t define us. If you feel they do, please reevaluate. Perl (C, k8s, PHP, Python 2.x) are just tools. It’s like defining your identity by the brand of hammer you use.
>The tools we use don’t define us. If you feel they do, please reevaluate. Perl (C, k8s, PHP, Python 2.x) are just tools. It’s like defining your identity by the brand of hammer you use.
Maybe they shouldn't but professionally they actually do. Try to get a job using a tool you love but doesn't have widespread adoption and it's hard. X years experience using tool Y? Better have got on board earlier. Adopt something early that really takes off while you write key libraries, docs, contribute (previous times o'reilly howto books) and it can make your career.
As a class we get awfully groupthink and boosterist of our tech choices. It's not good but it's completely understandable.
Hammers are completely fungible. Two similar languages used in similar places are not. See Perl and Python. Do you really have no preference seeing jobs that specify one or the other? If so that's great - I try to be thereabouts myself too. But it's clearly not the norm and it's not as irrational as you're making out here for all I dislike it.
edit: Trying to phrase this in a pithy fashion below.
It makes zero difference to you as a carpenter if every other carpenter on earth hates your chosen brand of hammer.
It makes a world of difference to you as a programmer if your language of choice is popular or not.
I have been on both sides of hiring decisions a lot. Here's what I can tell you: a developer who has a shit load of Perl experience will be more likely to get a job at a Python shop if they show flexibility in their choices. A Python developer who bashes Perl for being a shitty terrible language will not simply because having a bad attitude is a red flag.
If you have only worked with PHP 4 for the past 20 years and have no plans to move off that language then yeah you will have a harder time. But getting defensive about it in an online discussion is a weird thing to do and honestly a red flag more than anything. The tools may define you as a professional (to some), but not as a person. Getting defensive is a personal thing. If you do it as a professional that's pretty bad. If you take professional discussions personally, in my experience you'll be very difficult as a coworker.
The tools we use don’t define us. If you feel they do, please reevaluate. Perl (C, k8s, PHP, Python 2.x) are just tools. It’s like defining your identity by the brand of hammer you use.