Ruby comes to mind - matz wrote it in 1995, but it wasn't until the pickaxe book came out in 2001 that it gained any popularity outside Japan. And it wasn't un

Ruby comes to mind - matz wrote it in 1995, but it wasn't until the pickaxe book came out in 2001 that it gained any popularity outside Japan. And it wasn't until Rails came out 3 years later that it really took off. That's almost a full decade from conception to use outside of niche applications.