Re: GoTo in Java


Michael Wojcik wrote:

> > The popular languages are not so because of their syntax (eg see Perl),
> > but because of the rich libraries and components that are available to
> > implement the task with the minimum of source code.

> That may well be one factor that contributes to some languages'
> popularity, but C, for example, has been extremely successful despite
> the fact that the standard library is very small and primitive. ...

[...]

> ... It does mean, though, that
> with a C implementation you get easy access to a huge array of software,
> particularly tools, and that tends to draw people into C.

So you do agree with me ;-)

There were many languages avilable that had adherents, but with C you
could select from hundreds of diskettes of open source software to
provide most of a solution.

> More importantly, OCaml is very safe; it's a strictly-typed functional
> language with built-in memory management that's amenable to proofs of
> correctness and secure programming techniques. Yet almost no one
> uses it in commercial development.

No, they seem to prefer loosely typed dynamic OO scripting languages
such as Perl (yuk), PHP and Python (yay!).

> I could speculate why, but I think
> really it comes down to a host of irrational factors: comfort level
> and familiarity for developers and management; a reluctance to move
> away from the languages used for existing code bases, even when those
> are fraught with bugs; and chance - some languages catch the eyes of
> tastemakers and others do not.

And some have code or libraries available that do almost exactly what
is required with minimum effort.

.

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