Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by moloch-hai 1271 days ago
Even a language pushed by corporations, zealots, and a framework usually dies. Fizzling is absolutely the normal fate of any new language, absent a miracle.

Even a language that seems to have everything going for it can fade out. Ruby's success used to be thought assured. Then it suddenly wasn't. Python has run the oddest course. It plodded along for two decades, almost imploded on the 2->3 transition, and then got its miracle.
2 comments
pjmlp 1270 days ago
Ah the Python example from people that weren't there I guess.

Zope in the early 2000's, Guido's employment at NIST, CNRI, Google, Dropbox and now Microsoft. CERN and Fermilab pushing for it during 2003 onwards.

Ruby suffered the same fate as languages that are tied to a killer framework, then the killer framework is no longer seen as the new hottest thing to have on the CV. Yet, without Rails, no one would have cared enough for Ruby to matter.

link
andsoitis 1271 days ago
> Fizzling is absolutely the normal fate of any new language, absent a miracle.

There are more ways to be dead than being alive.

link