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I get that. But C++ — and almost every popular programming language — did not come from a community or group of people making decisions. C++ originally came fro

I get that. But C++ — and almost every popular programming language — did not come from a community or group of people making decisions. C++ originally came from one person. So did Python, Javascript, PHP, Ruby, and most others. There was no group in the room to consult. Sometimes the author started with a hobby project that got traction later. The author describes a world of academic departments and conferences, but what useful languages have come out of those? She seems to imagine an exclusionary process of language design that doesn’t actually exist. Using computers presents numerous obstacles to people with vision impairment, far beyond C++ syntax. Seems like the wrong detail to focus on.

jfengel 2y ago
I believe that the academic programming language community is more relevant than you think it is. It's where a lot of ideas get their start, and where live projects get discussed, leading to future evolution. Still, you're right that I don't expect that to lead to a lot of big changes. The set of really important languages is actually pretty fixed. We're still using C++ how many decades later? I think TFA is more concerned about the genesis of genuinely novel languages, than the practicalities of what languages are being used. From a PL design point of view, a lot of the languages we use are pretty much the same thing over and over. The differences are of immense interest to working programmers, but the range is really quite limited compared to what's possible.