4 ms·

> will ever swing back. Does it need to swing back? Python/JS/PHP/Ruby are still plenty popular. And no, JS isn't typescript.

MiroF 6y ago
JS is losing out to TS long term. Python is getting Mypy. PHP (and Ruby) are dying much more rapidly than many of their peers of similar ages.
- joelbluminator 6y ago
  Php is dying? Didnt know.
  - MiroF 6y ago
    PHP is literally the only language banned in some major tech companies because of how dysfunctional it is.
    - joelbluminator 6y ago
      PHP is quite weak in the U.S, I can only assume that's why you got the impression it's dying. In Europe it couldn't be more popular. I'm not here to "defend" PHP, I use Ruby, but living in the Netherlands you'd be amazed how many companies use it. Ruby is a very small niche here in comparison.
      - MiroF 6y ago
        Huh, interesting! Laravel is much more popular than I would have expected given how few shops I see using it.
- billisonline 6y ago
  PHP’s type system has improved (and continues to improve) by leaps and bounds. See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24607891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24607891 Also the Laravel framework for PHP has the most Github stars of any server-side framework: https://twitter.com/denicmarko/status/1309714816290951168 https://twitter.com/denicmarko/status/1309714816290951168
jerf 6y ago
Python/JS/PHP/Ruby are still plenty popular... but the weight they are putting on "dynamically typed" is decreasing over time. Basically, all the dynamic languages are creeping towards the statically-typed side with various partial annotations and optional features. But there are no statically-typed languages I know of rushing to add more dynamically-typed support to their languages. If you draw all those language trends out, they don't meet in the middle; they meet solidly in the "statically-typed" area. I phrased that carefully; obviously they aren't going to stop being "dynamically typed" under the hood. But, slowly but surely, those language's contribution to "dynamically typed" is decreasing, and I expect, will continue to decrease. In another 20 years, I expect "dynamically typed" will be looked at as a complete mistake by the oversimplification process of history, as the number of people who were around when they were getting popular and understand why they were so attractive decreases. I do, myself; I experienced being liberated from some really, really crotchety languages by the freedom of Python 2.0, and I understand why the people of the time analyzed the programming landscape, and decided that the problem was "static typing" rather than "bad static typing", because there weren't any examples of good static typing. But now there are, and they aren't going to go away, and I expect that barring legacy languages, the choices in the future are going to be simple static typing like Go, complicated static typing like Rust, really complicated dependent typing like $LANGUAGE_YET_TO_BE_BUILT, and tiny languages like shell designed to never write programs in them large enough for typing to even matter.
- fetbaffe 6y ago
  I’m not so sure about that, the reason is that the total number of programmers in the world are just increasing and more importantly more and more non-programmers program code today than ever before. It hard to convince non-programmers to see the beauty of a type system when they only want to print some html. So what I see is a bright future for languages that can do both, types or no types.

MiroF 6y ago

JS is losing out to TS long term. Python is getting Mypy. PHP (and Ruby) are dying much more rapidly than many of their peers of similar ages.

joelbluminator 6y ago
Php is dying? Didnt know.
- MiroF 6y ago
  PHP is literally the only language banned in some major tech companies because of how dysfunctional it is.
  - joelbluminator 6y ago
    PHP is quite weak in the U.S, I can only assume that's why you got the impression it's dying. In Europe it couldn't be more popular. I'm not here to "defend" PHP, I use Ruby, but living in the Netherlands you'd be amazed how many companies use it. Ruby is a very small niche here in comparison.
    - MiroF 6y ago
      Huh, interesting! Laravel is much more popular than I would have expected given how few shops I see using it.
billisonline 6y ago
PHP’s type system has improved (and continues to improve) by leaps and bounds. See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24607891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24607891 Also the Laravel framework for PHP has the most Github stars of any server-side framework: https://twitter.com/denicmarko/status/1309714816290951168 https://twitter.com/denicmarko/status/1309714816290951168

jerf 6y ago

Python/JS/PHP/Ruby are still plenty popular... but the weight they are putting on "dynamically typed" is decreasing over time. Basically, all the dynamic languages are creeping towards the statically-typed side with various partial annotations and optional features. But there are no statically-typed languages I know of rushing to add more dynamically-typed support to their languages. If you draw all those language trends out, they don't meet in the middle; they meet solidly in the "statically-typed" area. I phrased that carefully; obviously they aren't going to stop being "dynamically typed" under the hood. But, slowly but surely, those language's contribution to "dynamically typed" is decreasing, and I expect, will continue to decrease. In another 20 years, I expect "dynamically typed" will be looked at as a complete mistake by the oversimplification process of history, as the number of people who were around when they were getting popular and understand why they were so attractive decreases. I do, myself; I experienced being liberated from some really, really crotchety languages by the freedom of Python 2.0, and I understand why the people of the time analyzed the programming landscape, and decided that the problem was "static typing" rather than "bad static typing", because there weren't any examples of good static typing. But now there are, and they aren't going to go away, and I expect that barring legacy languages, the choices in the future are going to be simple static typing like Go, complicated static typing like Rust, really complicated dependent typing like $LANGUAGE_YET_TO_BE_BUILT, and tiny languages like shell designed to never write programs in them large enough for typing to even matter.

fetbaffe 6y ago
I’m not so sure about that, the reason is that the total number of programmers in the world are just increasing and more importantly more and more non-programmers program code today than ever before. It hard to convince non-programmers to see the beauty of a type system when they only want to print some html. So what I see is a bright future for languages that can do both, types or no types.