On 04/02/2011 20:55, bearophile wrote:
Bruno Medeiros:
That language ecosystems are what matter, not just the language itself.
This is true, but only once your language is already very good :-)
Bye,
bearophile
I disagree. I think an average language with an average toolchain (I'm
not even considering the whole ecosystem here, just the toolchain -
compilers, debuggers, IDEs, profilers, and some other tools) will be
better than a good language with a mediocre toolchain.
By better I mean that people will be more willing to use it, and better
programs will be created. Obviously it is very hard to quantify in a
non-subjective way what exactly good/average/mediocre is in terms of a
language and toolchain. But roughly speaking, I think the above to be true.
The only advantage that a good language with bad toolchain has over
another ecosystem, is in terms of *potential*: it might be easier to
improve the toolchain than to improve the language. This might be
relevant if one is still an early-adopter or hobbyist, but if you want
to do a real, important non-trivial project, what you care is what is
the state of the toolchain and ecosystem *now*.
--
Bruno Medeiros - Software Engineer
