Re: Have we reached the asymptotic plateau of innovation in programming language design?

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 8:02 PM, Ian Lance Taylor <ian@airs.com> wrote:
> Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> - And here's the first itchy point: there appears to be no correlation
>> between the success of a programming language and its emergence in the
form
>> of someone's doctoral or post-doctoral work. This bothers me a lot, as an
>> academic. It appears that deep thoughts, consistency, rigor and all other
>> things we value as scientists aren't that important for mass adoption of
>> programming languages.
>
> As a non-academic, I agree. None of those things matter very much to me
> when it comes to actually getting stuff done. They are not bad things
> to have, but they are not the things that matter.


Reminds me of an old linguist joke:


> A gentleman wanders around the campus of a college looking
> for the library. He approaches a student and asked, "Excuse
> me young man. Would you be good enough and tell me where
> the library is at?"
>
> The student, in a very arrogant and belittling tone, replied,
> "I sorry, sir, but at this school, we are taught never to end
> a sentence with a preposition!"
>
> The gentleman smiled, and in a very apologetic tone replied,
> "I beg your pardon. Please allow me to rephrase my question.
> Would you be good enough to tell me where the
> library is at, a@hole?"


This summarizes my empirical experiences well. Programming languages
appear to grow organically, as if they were species. There are many
dialects, from many tribes. Sometimes, a new language feature is
created out of utility. If that feature is very useful, it spreads to
different dialects. Later, theorists study the phenomena and define it
formally. Sometimes, out of utility, a language feature is created by
a tribe. Other tribes may not find this feature particularly useful.
It becomes a regional colloquialism or dies off.


Cameron

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