Actually, there is much more co-operation than is visible. Almost all the groups share the same libraries, same bugfixes, same patches, etc., which typically wi

Actually, there is much more co-operation than is visible. Almost all the groups share the same libraries, same bugfixes, same patches, etc., which typically will account for much of the user experience. The different language approaches will typically compete on things like syntax, speed, etc., and this leads to innovation and cross-pollination of ideas. I personally prefer to have some choice, and use a number of languages for scientific computing myself - but I guess too much choice makes things confusing for the newcomer.