Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!sundc!rlgvax!tony From: tony@rlgvax.UUCP (Tony Stuart) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Tearing down the tower of Babel. Summary: Why stop at programming languages? Keywords: Babel programming languages Message-ID: <1048@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: 5 Dec 88 14:41:35 GMT References: <418@ubbpc.UUCP> Organization: Computer Consoles Inc, Reston VA Lines: 38 In article <418@ubbpc.UUCP>, wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison) writes: > There are too many programming languages. One could say the same thing about editors, word processors, spreadsheets, data base management systems, operating systems, computer hardware and much more. And there is no reason to stay within the computer field. One could argue that there are too too many different styles of automobiles, too may different kinds of houses and of course, too many human languages. :-) > My job is helping software vendors convert their products onto my company's > UNIX systems. That job would be considerably easier if there were fewer > languages in use. From this perspective fewer programming languages would certainly help. I agree that common programming languages should be used in commercial software development. But that does not mean that new languages should not be developed. There are numerous reasons for developing new languages, including the solution of specific problems, the introduction of new programming paradigms and functionality, and of course the old favorites, fame and fortune. > My objective is to persuade people that programming in "minority language" > (those not widely used) is bad in many ways. Is any language that is not already in common use a minority language? How can a new language ever become a "majority" language unless it passes through a period of being a minority language? The problem with discouraging the design and use of new languages is that it assumes the best is already available. It's kind of like the argument at the turn of the century for closing the patent office "because everything had already been invented." -- Anthony F. Stuart, {uunet|sundc}!rlgvax!tony CCI, 11490 Commerce Park Drive, Reston, VA 22091