On 2018-05-21 12:11, Chris Angelico wrote:
Much more useful would be to look at languages that (a) work in a
field where programmers have ample freedom to choose between
languages, and (b) have been around long enough to actually
demonstrate that people want to use them. Look through the Stack
Overflow Developer Survey's report on languages:
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
A "Wanted" language is one that many developers say "I don't currently
use, but I would like to". (It may also be a language that has
murdered semicolons. I believe the bounty on JavaScript's head is
quite high now.) Go through that list and you'll get an idea of what
people wish they could use; then toss out anything that hasn't been
around for at least 10 years, because there's a tendency for new
technologies to be over-represented in a "Wanted" listing (partly
because fewer programmers already know them, and partly because people
want to try the latest toys). That may give you a better list of
languages to compare against.
I'd say that also has limited usefulness. The problem is that people
may "want" to learn a language for many reasons, and "the language made
good design choices" is only one such reason. A lot of people may want
to use JavaScript because it's hip or in demand or because they can (or
think they can) make money with it. But I'm not so interested in that.
What interests me is: what are the languages that people specifically
believe are superior to other languages *in design*? (Even better would
be what are the languages that actually ARE superior, in some reasonably
nonsubjective, definable, way, but we have even less data on that.)
--
Brendan Barnwell
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no
path, and leave a trail."
--author unknown
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