Good point. The focus on evaluating the success or failure of programming languages as a popularity contest is also unfortunate. There is also the matter of influence.
In the mid 80's I took Dan Friedman's (author of The Little Schemer) Programming Languages course and simply had a ton of fun learning all about Scheme & the implementation of languages. I had no idea at the time it would be by far the most important class that I took as either an undergraduate or graduate student.
Turns out, one of the most important things programming languages do is influence the way we learn and think about computation. I've learned crucial lessons from Scheme and all the languages I've worked in over the years. To this day, I am perplexed by people so vested in one programming language that they fear instead of savor the chance to work in another.
As a math major, a key lesson demonstrated so vividly by Prof Friedman & by the philosophy of Scheme resonated with me personally: the importance of clearly understanding "what depends on what?" and of learning which things can and/or should be made fundamental and which derivative.
The Golang Team has looked at their problem domain and, through the creation of Go, has built a striking and innovative statement on what they've judged as fundamental. I welcome their emphasis on selectivity over accumulation and believe there is much to be learned from their choices.
In the mid 80's I took Dan Friedman's (author of The Little Schemer) Programming Languages course and simply had a ton of fun learning all about Scheme & the implementation of languages. I had no idea at the time it would be by far the most important class that I took as either an undergraduate or graduate student.
Turns out, one of the most important things programming languages do is influence the way we learn and think about computation. I've learned crucial lessons from Scheme and all the languages I've worked in over the years. To this day, I am perplexed by people so vested in one programming language that they fear instead of savor the chance to work in another.
As a math major, a key lesson demonstrated so vividly by Prof Friedman & by the philosophy of Scheme resonated with me personally: the importance of clearly understanding "what depends on what?" and of learning which things can and/or should be made fundamental and which derivative.
The Golang Team has looked at their problem domain and, through the creation of Go, has built a striking and innovative statement on what they've judged as fundamental. I welcome their emphasis on selectivity over accumulation and believe there is much to be learned from their choices.