Python vs D [ was Re: Bartosz about Chapel ]

[J Arrizza]

>
> True but somehow they manage to become famous because there was a
> killer feature everyone wanted to use. If I recall correctly:
>
> Perl - An easy way to create complex shell scripts and the major language
> to
> be used for web development (CGI)
> Ruby - It only took off because Ruby on Rails
> Python - People only started taking it serious after Zope appeared
>

Paulo, with respect, I disagree. A single killer feature does not have
enough breadth to entice a developer community that has large and varied
needs from a language.

To me, it is this that caused the success of these languages in a short
time:

Perl has CPAN
Ruby has gems
Python has PyPi.
Java has the JDK
C# has the CLR


All of the libraries are huge and, just as importantly, they're organized
(although some better than others).

Depending on your level of cynicism, these libraries show one or more of
the following about a language:

1) In short, if it's good enough for CPAN/gems/PyPi, it's probably good
enough for my little application. Right?

A large library shows a strong, deep maturity of the language itself. You
can not write thousands of varied utilities, tools, application frameworks,
etc. etc. without a well functioning, clean, nearly bug-free language.

All the kinks are worked out. As the library was being written, enough
people bitched about these and those problems and they got fixed. They
complained about the aspects of the language they were facing as they were
writing their piece of the library. All those opinions, all those fixes,
led to a fleshing out and stabilization of the language features. It now
has breadth *and* depth.

2) a plunging chasm of self-serving laziness in the developer community.
Why code it myself? Let someone else do the heavy lifting and then I can
use it and look great...

Example: I need the current price of some mutual funds. Sure I could do it
the old fashioned way and screen scrape some html, blah blah. Or I could go
to CPAN, find the module that does it (and there always is one) and write
three lines of code.  Oh wait I wanted Canadian mutual funds. No problem.
Done.

3) A vote of confidence by many other developers the language is going to
stick around. There are always zealots for any given language, but with a
substantial base of people numbering in the thousands or better tens of
thousands, perhaps it's a safe bet the language will be there in 15 years.
 And they are "voting" by writing lots and lots of code, so it's not just
jaw.


John
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