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by zarzavat 21 days ago
Is that supposed to be a bad thing? I like having only one implementation. Multiple compilers is annoying for users, have to write "portable" code which can only target the lowest common denominator. Only when a feature ships in Clang, GCC and VC++ can you use it. Each compiler needs its own flags/project as well.

Loosely coupling a language to its compiler is 20th century thinking for when programming languages were simple. It works for C because C is simple enough to be implemented over and over again. But for today's hyper complicated languages, multiple implementations is a pain for everyone.
2 comments
asddubs 21 days ago
It's a bad thing if you want your language to be truly portable and be able to work on anything
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NooneAtAll3 21 days ago
yes monopolies are always a bad thing
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zarzavat 21 days ago
A programming language with a reference implementation is not a "monopoly", it's a standard. By having a common implementation to write code against we can avoid wasting time on pointless minutiae such as which features are portable in practice and which are not.

When a programming language community fractures into multiple incompatible implementations everyone is worse off.

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