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What makes a programming language succeed?
- open-source-ux 5y agoThree further factors can be important for the success of a programming language: 1. Funding or sponsorship for the language Would Rust or Go have enjoyed their popularity without the support of Mozilla and Go? One of the reasons developers are drawn to those languages is their association with Mozilla and Go. (Although Rust is independent of Mozilla, its long association with Mozilla is what initially drew developer interest.) Without a generous benefactor, open source languages have to scrape funding together piecemeal from different sources - just look at Nim and Crystal as examples. 2. A "Batteries included" standard library Or at least a sufficiently rich library that lets developers create a wide range of applications. This is tied to point 1 above: developers are needed to help fill out the standard library - feasible with funding, slower to achieve without. 3. Documentation and tutorials Developers underestimate how important this for people new to the language. While some developers will patiently work through a problem with incomplete documentation or guides, many more will simply not explore the language any further. Once again, it comes down to funding. Rust and Go have had (or still have) dedicated staff writing documentation for the language. This is a luxury that other languages like Nim or Crystal cannot fund or afford. A programming language can still survive without meeting any of the factors above. But can it thrive or gain traction?
- 7thaccount 5y agoGood article. I liked the evolution graphs.