3 ms·
Programming languages have network effects. More popularity -> more utility. Popularity of language is not determined rationally. C had small edge in utility a
by nabla9 5y ago
Programming languages have network effects. More popularity -> more utility. Popularity of language is not determined rationally.
C had small edge in utility at first, then it ballooned into huge base of programmers. Familiar syntax can sell completely new language with different semantics. Choosing syntax from C has lead to success of C++, Java, JavaScript, JSON, ... despite completely different semantics.
Pascal and successors Modula Oberon and Ada with similar syntax features did not succeed. It had little to do with language features, ease to learn (except surface syntax) or semantics.
- tomrod 5y agoWould it be too reductionist to say "developer experience"?
- noir_lord 5y agoProbably, I programmed both back then and Pascal had the better development experience as a language but C had the libraries and the mindshare so it kinda depends where you draw the lines for developer experience. Turbo Pascal was in it's day a joy to work with as a language - clean, fast (compilation and runtime), good documentation, decent tooling.
- Turing_Machine 5y agoTurbo Pascal added a whole lot of bells and whistles to Wirth's Pascal, though. Let's just say that the ability to include inline assembly language wasn't exactly a feature of Wirth's original Pascal. The best feature of the classic Borland languages was the debugger, IMO.