How do you choose the right programming language or framework for a new software project, considering factors like performance, scalability, and team expertise?

When choosing a programming language or a framework for a new software project, you need to consider several factors. 

1. Project requirements

If performance is the key in real-time systems or high-traffic applications, it makes sense to go with languages like C++ because they are reputed for being fast and efficient. For scalability, you would have to look for languages and frameworks that support horizontal scaling. For event-driven applications, I would choose Node.js, while for rapid development with the benefit of easy scaling, I would go with Python-Django.

2. Skill level

If your team already has a high degree of expertise in a given language or framework, you're too far ahead to start learning something new. At the same time, I like to plan for the life of the project. If we as an organization plan to support the project in the long run, then considering the availability of skilled developers at a later stage becomes important. In such cases, it makes sense to choose widely used languages such as JavaScript, Python, and Java, as these have a large pool of developers.

3. The ecosystem and community

You may need additional tools, libraries, and solutions to common programming challenges, so it would make sense to pick a framework that is well-established with an active community. For example, React or Angular would be great choices for front-end development due to their robust ecosystems.

4. The adaptability of the framework

While Ruby on Rails is a pleasure to code with, it requires extra effort to scale. On the other hand, frameworks like Spring or Express are highly scalable and maintainable, making them more suited for long-term, large-scale projects.

5. Integration with other tools and technologies

If the project involves microservices, cloud infrastructure, or specific third-party integrations, I choose languages and frameworks that easily support those environments.

By balancing these factors — performance, scalability, team expertise, community support, and project requirements — I make informed decisions that align with both short-term goals and long-term sustainability.

At first, I hear what the customer is aiming to achieve and who their end user will be. Depending on what to offer for the software project, I choose the programming language for it. Whether it will be a desktop, web, or mobile application (or all of them) also plays an important role here as the language has to be chosen according to the platform.

Based on all the information gathered, I discuss what will serve the end users better to make their experience smooth. For cross-platform software projects, a base of the project should be developed in the cloud to create API services that can be interacted with through all types of platforms. The API can be developed using any language, let it be a node js, python, PHP, or any language as long as it responds faster when queried. This creates room for one or more programming languages to be used depending on the target platform and it increases scalability and lets team expertise be fully utilized based on their skill set and their relevant department. 

Each programming language has its pros and cons. To maintain performance, security, and scalability, understanding the pros and cons of every programming language is necessary for software project development and language selection. 

Choosing the right framework should primarily depend on the specific needs of the project. Here's a more focused approach:

Project Needs: The framework should align with the specific requirements of the project, such as the type of application, performance demands, and scalability needs.

Team Expertise: Select a framework that your team is familiar with to reduce the learning curve and development time.

Ecosystem and Community: A framework with a strong community and rich ecosystem can provide better support, tools, and resources.

Long-Term Viability: Choose a framework that is stable, widely adopted, and likely to be maintained over the long term.

Integration: Ensure the framework integrates well with existing systems and technologies you plan to use.

It is very important to select correct programming language for your use case. You can consider following points while selecting a programming language for your project:

1. Performance requirement: Depending on need for the performance, particular programming language should be selected. for example python can be selected for complex performance such as AI software.
2. Type of application: There can be different programming language needed for various use case. for example for the web applications, HTML, Javascript can be used. And for the mobile applications, Java or Swift can be used.
3. Concurrency: If the application is high resource consuming, then Elixir or GO can be used, which can handle concurrent processes better.
4. Third party integration: It is also important to see which language supports third party APIs and all. 
5. Built-in security: some languages has lot of security support in-built, such as ASP.NET and hence this also can be kept in mind while selecting a programming language.

These are the points to be considered while selecting the best programming language for the project.

I believe in hard work, creating a rock solid code base, and expanding it over the years. Some programming languages are more challenging, but when you have created your own code base, and your own "how to" for most common scenarios and use cases, it is worthwhile. In our case, that would be C++. We do almost any kind of development in C++. I am the author of the book Learning C++, and I believe in C++. So far, it has proven itself to be a robust language suitble to almost anything.