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> The "final language" Ugh, I've been holding out hope for this since I first learned there was more than BASIC when I was a kid. Instead, things got more fra

> The "final language" Ugh, I've been holding out hope for this since I first learned there was more than BASIC when I was a kid. Instead, things got more fragmented. How many millions of hours have been wasted learning languages, frameworks or protocols which weren't used nearly as much as they were expected to be and ended up dying out? Think of how much better software could be if those hours had been spent learning things that continued to be useful. It honestly sometimes almost makes me wish I lived in a long-ago world where we could earn a living making things out of wood with the same simple hand tools our fathers did-- tools that stayed useful, and rarely changed. Does anyone think this "final language" thing is realistic at all? I've given up on seeing anything like it before I hit retirement age.

david927 11y ago
Does anyone think this "final language" thing is realistic at all? I do. Remember, there were hundreds of search engines, and it looked like it would forever be that way, until Google came along. It's chaos until suddenly it's not anymore. The thing is, it's a definitely a 'hard problem', so we could normally forgive ourselves for not having solved it yet. Sadly, I'm not sure we're trying.
- JadeNB 11y ago
  > Remember, there were hundreds of search engines, and it looked like it would forever be that way, until Google came along. On the other hand, remember that Google used to be the best search engine, which was why it became the One True search engine; but now it's not so clear that it's the best for all purposes. I use DDG, for example. (I'm not sure if this has any relevance to the analogy with the final language, except perhaps that any such language would work great until someone, or perhaps Sapir and Whorf, said "having everyone write in the same language is creating a monoculture. Imagine if we could tailor the language to the problem!")

david927 11y ago

Does anyone think this "final language" thing is realistic at all? I do. Remember, there were hundreds of search engines, and it looked like it would forever be that way, until Google came along. It's chaos until suddenly it's not anymore. The thing is, it's a definitely a 'hard problem', so we could normally forgive ourselves for not having solved it yet. Sadly, I'm not sure we're trying.

JadeNB 11y ago
> Remember, there were hundreds of search engines, and it looked like it would forever be that way, until Google came along. On the other hand, remember that Google used to be the best search engine, which was why it became the One True search engine; but now it's not so clear that it's the best for all purposes. I use DDG, for example. (I'm not sure if this has any relevance to the analogy with the final language, except perhaps that any such language would work great until someone, or perhaps Sapir and Whorf, said "having everyone write in the same language is creating a monoculture. Imagine if we could tailor the language to the problem!")