[agumonkey]

That's just the memory span of society. Traits reappear whenever the context calls for them to emerge. Sometimes explicitly inspired by the past, sometimes implicitely, sometimes really reinvented.

Someone did a similar article 'go vs brand X' https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=943554

I get the feeling that this loop thing is slowing down. Genes have been passed vertically and horizontally enough times for everybody to be aware of them. So many languages get the same features now: closures, optional static types, generators, streams, list/map/set types, channels.

[BrendanEich]

We make a pilgrim's (if not a whig's) progress over time, good point.

The next generation of programming languages should address safety and ||ism. Rust takes these on based on prior work (e.g. Cyclone) but with influence from C++ best practices, which I think is winning.

[agumonkey]

You're referring to these ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history

We'll see how Rust fare, especially with the recent stable release. Personally I'd like to see programming to aim at Haskell, even Idris. But let's not fantasize too much (especially in a thread about WebAssembl*).

ps: why on earth did cyclone not catch on ? I'd think people would jump on a C with less rope... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_(programming_language)...

[BrendanEich]

I am referring to those things, in general terms (I'm not a protestant or a whig!).

Haskell, Idris, and I must add PureScript are great, but will not sweep all before. Especially when "systems programing".

Cyclone was (a) a research project and language; (b) too heavy on sigils. Rust started with sigils but ended in a great spot, with only & and region (lifetime) ` annotations. Usability, developer ergonomics, matter.