From: Sean Middleditch <elanthis@...>
Date: 2002-04-20T13:21:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby on .NET?

On Fri, 2002-04-19 at 23:50, Ken Peek wrote:
> (Paraphrasing)- The designer of Java: "...I made Java a lot like C++ because
> that is the language that people are used to programming in..."
> 
> (Paraphrasing)- The designers of C#: "...We made Java a lot like C because that
> is the language that people are used to programming in..."
> 
> (Direct Quote)- Ralph Waldo Emerson, in: "Self Reliance": "A foolish consistency
> is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers
> and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do."
> 
> [Ken Peek]:
> Java was cool-- after all, Sun copied the great works of UCSD Pascal, and the
> P-System, which was VERY cool.  ".NET" (and it's 'C#' language) are 'cool' too--
> after all, Micro$haft is copied the great works of UCSD-Pascal, and Java...
> 
> It is ALSO very 'cool', to blaze your own trail...  Python and Ruby both do this
> very well.
> 
> Why would ANYONE with any REAL TALENT want to copy imitators?

I'm sure this could degenerate into another flame fest, so I'm going to
go lite on this one.  ~,^

I'd simply ask you to note that if a technology is imitated, chances
are, it's good.  C# being similar to Java is a testament to the power of
Java, and Java being based on whatever is a testament to the power of
those.

I know that I *am* more comfortable with C#, Java, and C++ than with a
lot of the "newer" language types, like Ruby or Python, simply because I
have so much background in C.  (7 years.)

Creating a technology that is different from all others simply to not
imitate would be the what programmers with no real talent do.  ~,^

C# is a great language, given it's purpose; that's why the MS
programmers designed it how they did.  A whole new language paradigm
would simply scare away developers, increase the complexity of the
language design, and likely not grant any new functionality to make it
worth the effort.

Sure, like Ruby programmers are into, there are lots of *niftier* things
that could've been done instead of C#, but would there truly have been
an advantage whatsoever?

So far as Python or Ruby being original... well, they both feel a lot
like each other, and in turn feel like a combination of other
languages.  They are imitating parts of languages which probably got the
idea from another language, as well.  ^,^

> 
> 
>