Template instantiation syntax

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Bent Rasmussen" <IncredibleShrinkingSphere at Gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:gcre4u$2dmb$1 at digitalmars.com...
> In fact the days of "one language one syntax" is about to come to an end 
> it would appear. This is witnessed by the massive hype surrounding 
> domain-specific languages atm - perhaps spun off by Intentional 
> Programming where demonstrations show radically different presentations 
> for the same underlying abstract syntax.
>

The domain-specific language hype annoys me. Needs have grown since the days 
C/C++ was considered "general purpose", and C++'s changes haven't quite been 
able to keep up. That's a given. Formerly "general-purpose" languages like 
C++ just aren't really "general purpose" anymore. But I consider the 
"domain-specific language" movement to be purely systemic of the lack of a 
sufficient new general purpose language.

There's still a need, and IMO a potential, for a new general purpose 
language. It's just too hackish to be using a completely different language 
for every little thing. Most people seem to look at this recent explosion of 
less-than-mainstream languges like D, F#, OCaml, Groovy, Python, Delight, 
etc., as a trend towards an increasingly-segregated language arena. I see it 
as the playground/sandbox that's building the groundwork for a new general 
purpose language. If I understand my language history right, this is similar 
to how languages like ALGOL, B, BCPL, Fortran, Fourth and Cobol helped pave 
the way for C.