Why don't other programming languages have ranges?

[Walter Bright]

dsimcha wrote:
> Basically, my take as a practical programmer rather than a theoretical comp-sci
> researcher is "Who cares if it's been done before if it's not implemented in any
> practical language?".

There's rarely anything truly new in programming. I agree with you that turning 
an idea into something useful is where it's at, and how it's done. For example, 
there's the idea of putting windows in a house, and then there's the design, 
size, and placement of those windows that make it matter.

This is hardly unique to programming. For example, the Vikings 'discovered' 
America centuries before Columbus. But they did no followup, forgot about it, 
and it had no lasting impact.

Many argue that others invented the airplane before the Wright brothers. But 
none of those claims can be properly documented, none of them did any followup, 
and none of them had any impact on the evolution of airplane design.

Led Zeppelin based several of its major hits on obscure blues songs. Zep should 
have given credit at the time, but also, if Zep hadn't reworked those songs into 
hits, those songs would be quite forgotten.