3 ms·

This cuts both ways. Just because you’re ignorant about the usage of something doesn’t mean it’s in fact not being used.

• coldtea 3y ago
  If you need to do your homework to tell whether a language is used, then it's not particularly alive. The point isn't if it's used by some (that's true for all languages, there are some companies doing stuff in whatever niche language you want, and if you look enough, you'll find this or that project in some FAANG using any old language, they might even use Oberon or Dylan. But that's not the point when we usually say it's "dead" or "alive" (else all languages would be "alive", even Algol, I'm pretty sure there are projects there still done in Algol). So, it is not about there being some use, but about whether the language is mass adopted, or smaller but growing, or dwinlding, past its heyday, and only used by the occasional outlier. To drive the point home, there are swing bands playing 30s swing, and even clubs and events devoted to that genre. But swing music is pretty much dead in the sense we're talking about, whereas in the 20s and 30s it was pretty much alive.