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> no matter what language I create, people will not use it, it it comes from a random github page. Speaking as a fellow sufferer, how did perl, python, php, lu

> no matter what language I create, people will not use it, it it comes from a random github page. Speaking as a fellow sufferer, how did perl, python, php, lua, ruby start getting used? They were pre-github, but jq really did start that way: https://github.com/stedolan/jq https://github.com/stedolan/jq. The key to being used is a usage: a problem to apply it to. If there's a problem that people need solved, and your language is much better than the alternatives, then people will use it, post about it, rave about it. If JSON wasn't popular, jq wouldn't be popular. OTOH your actual interest is in more abstract ideals. This is crucially important work, but you may be right that no one will use it... instead, they'll be interested in the ideas you are interested in. Finding a needed application of your ideas will generate use.

axilmar 7y ago
'Random github page' means there is a plethora of new programming languages to chose from (due to easiness of sharing projects that github allows) and studying of them all to see if they solve any new issues or improve things so much that it makes economic sense to work on this new language becomes increasingly more difficult. In the pre-github days, candidate programming languages were fewer and solved yet-almost-unsolved important problems. The more you go into the past, the easier it is to get your foot in the door.
- hyperpallium 7y ago
  > studying of them all to see if they solve any new issues But you don't find them that way - you look for a solution to your problem, and you come across them. That's why they say "scratch your own itch"; someone else might have that itch too. You search for JSON transformation, you get jq (that's how I found it, some years ago). You're right that it was easier earlier. But there are new-unsolved-important problems all the time --- and "solutions to problems" radically narrows the search space.

axilmar 7y ago

'Random github page' means there is a plethora of new programming languages to chose from (due to easiness of sharing projects that github allows) and studying of them all to see if they solve any new issues or improve things so much that it makes economic sense to work on this new language becomes increasingly more difficult. In the pre-github days, candidate programming languages were fewer and solved yet-almost-unsolved important problems. The more you go into the past, the easier it is to get your foot in the door.

hyperpallium 7y ago
> studying of them all to see if they solve any new issues But you don't find them that way - you look for a solution to your problem, and you come across them. That's why they say "scratch your own itch"; someone else might have that itch too. You search for JSON transformation, you get jq (that's how I found it, some years ago). You're right that it was easier earlier. But there are new-unsolved-important problems all the time --- and "solutions to problems" radically narrows the search space.