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Nobody has credible data enabling reproducible comparison of programming languages. The big lacuna of PL research ... If popularity mattered ... PHP, JavaScrip

• pron 7y ago
  > Nobody has credible data enabling reproducible comparison of programming languages. Right, so as "better" and "best" are unknown, we should stop using those terms. I like Java and I like ML, but I don't know that one of them is better than the other, and if so which. > I find the evolution of all successful programming languages eventually to evolve into an ML-like core fascinating. Some of the successful typed languages, sure: Java, C++, C#, but the three heavily influence one another, and at least Java's and C#'s designers were aware of ML. So I don't think that, to the extent this is true, it's some "natural" draw, but rather a direct or indirect influence. On the other hand, you have Go, which is also quite successful (admittedly in a lower tier of success), and it doesn't seem to be converging on something ML-like, though (although it is influenced by another Milner idea), and neither is C.