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Then there's python. Ruby (currently waning in popularity, but we are talking about bootstrapping popularity), php (well fb is a major company but php was popu
by dnautics 5y ago
Then there's python. Ruby (currently waning in popularity, but we are talking about bootstrapping popularity), php (well fb is a major company but php was popular long before that), perl, not to mention C and C++.
These languages have all at one point been "top" languages (moreso than swift, anyways).
- TchoBeer 5y agoThe C comparison is particularly apt considering that C is newer than lisp.
- pjmlp 5y agoCame with a free beer operating system.
- chongli 5y agoWell, big tech backing is a sufficient condition for popularity, but not a necessary one. If you're looking for necessary conditions then that's a far more difficult question. Why do other things (books, songs, movies, games) become popular? Some things just go viral for whatever reason and it's very difficult to explain why, even after the fact. Like trying to predict where lightning will strike next.
- dnautics 5y agoBig tech backing is no where near sufficient. Dart almost died (and the jury is still out). Facebook created a statically typed erlang, and I think that one is already dead, not a year after it was supposed to be announced
- Zababa 5y agoThe usual response is that Dart wasn't really backed by Google in general but just a few people on and around the Dart team.
- pjmlp 5y agoPython - Zope, and all the companies Guido worked at Ruby - Rails made it happen PHP - Perl without CGI hurdles, and FB really C and C++ - AT&T, UNIX, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Borland, CORBA