From: "Brandon J. Van Every" Date: 2003-08-21T02:29:50+09:00 Subject: Re: the mindshare of Ruby (was) Peter Hickman wrote: > Brandon J. Van Every wrote: >> COBOL is dead because no sane programmer uses it for new >> applications or systems development. It is entirely a legacy >> operation. Language technology and productivity has advanced far, >> far beyond what COBOL is capable of. > > COBOL is still used, there are new applications being developed by > various corporations (I was a COBOL programmer). Why did you switch? >> Smalltalk is dead not because its paradigms are outmoded, but >> because other languages have offered similar things and have >> improved generally upon it. The mindshare has moved on. No sane >> programmer uses it for new applications or systems development. >> Smalltalk is a has-been language. > > Outmoded? What nonesense is this? The mainstream languages have yet > to catch up with some of the features offers by Smalltalk (and LISP > for that matter). Did you read what I wrote? I said, "not because its paradigms are outmoded...." IN SPITE OF THIS, nobody's doing new Smalltalk programming. That means Smalltalk has fumbled away its mindshare. >> C++ is a dying language. It is too cumbersome in practice, and >> modern computers can afford garbage collection and higher level >> language abstractions. At Microsoft, C# is supplanting all C++ >> development. The writing is on the wall: nobody is interested in >> C++ any more. > > The use of C# at Microsoft might perhaps be a political desision? > Like the use of Java at Sun? Do you imply that either is a bad language, or that they are weakened by these decisions? I doubt it. They aren't bad languages, and they've each got huge resources behind them. They aren't going away. They threaten to sweep the table. > If C++ is dying the same way COBOL is > dead then my grandchildren will probably be programming in it. Yes, and it will be a severe productivity handicap. Hope the money is darned good for their pain. > Sure just like prolog was going to take over the world when Japan > (somewhat larger than Microsoft) got 100% behind it for their Fifth > Generation Project. Japan is not relevant as far as pushing the software industry in one directon or another. Microsoft is. It's the most relevant company out there, by an order of magnitude. When Microsoft gets 100% behind something, you can take it to the bank. -- Cheers, www.3DProgrammer.com Brandon Van Every Seattle, WA 20% of the world is real. 80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.