Perl and Python and Ruby have hit middle age - no more growing, just more bulk accumulating around the middle.
Matt
On Wednesday, December 8, 2004, at 08:06 AM, Gour wrote:
Paul Hudak ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
Does Python not have warts? Or Pearl, or Java, or C#? I don't think that a few warts prevent a language from becoming a "success".
I agree.
But you may be right that it is too late... Haskell is getting old!
Sometimes I think that for a language to "succeed" it must do so in its
infancy.
Let's take e.g. Ruby - it's also over 10-year and is just gaining wider acceptance.
Perhaps the thing to do is create a new language with a new name, but
base it entirely on Haskell's semantics, then equip it with just one
really good library to solve well just one important niche problem, and
see what happens. If it is seen as a shiny new silver bullet in just
one niche area, it might take off like a rocket.
However, RAA (Ruby Application Archive) counts 1291 project in 218 categories.
Many programmers are switching from either Perl or Python (I had to unsubscribe
from the mailing lists 'cause the traffic increased tremendously).
What is so special in Ruby in comparison with e.g. Perl & Python?
otoh, SF counts 91,889 projects (OK, many are dead) & 968,206 users. That is
the whole army and I'm sure that filling the library-gaps, providing more
documentation & printed books (what Pickaxe book did for the spreading of the
Ruby, besides 20+ printed books in Japanese) covering (more) advanced features
of the language (some kind of follow-up for your & Thompson's book) suited for
the 'average-open-source-programmers' can bring lot of newcomers to the
Haskell camp in order to solve general problems - "Haskell is a general
purpose, purely functional programming language", isn't it?
What other alternative one has in the lazy-functional camp?
So, if there is already a wonderful one, why neglect the child? Let's help
it to grow.
Haskell is getting old, but it is still too young .. :-)
Sincerely, Gour
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