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Re: What makes a programming language popular?

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On 2/5/2012 6:33 PM, Aaron W. Hsu wrote:
> At any given time, a programming language can usually be thought of as
> currently fashionable, rising in popularity, or losing popularity. I would
> like to hear some thoughts on what makes a language popular, what brings it
> back into popularity, or what might be the "marketing" strategy for anyone
> who cares about their language making an impact and achieving wide use.
>
> This is, of course, disregarding whether being a popular language is a good
> thing or not. :-)
>

some factors:
familiarity, how much does it look like what people already know and like?
what merits does it bring versus existing options?
what niches or use cases does it do well in?
how much name-recognition or feature-recognition does it have? (does it 
have popular features X, Y, and Z? does it sound like something else 
people like? how many people have heard of it? ...)
...

so, a few possibilities:
common syntax and semantics, say C-like or Java-like, or maybe an 
ECMAScript-style syntax, likely supporting packages and OO and similar;
generally does most things moderately well (it doesn't have to be 
perfect, but if *anything* is overly difficult vs the existing options, 
this will give a bad taste);
probably aiming for a popular niche, like apps/web/mobile/... or a 
"trendy" and rising niche (harder to find, if one has already heard of 
it, it is likely already hit its relative plateau or has become 
saturated, people can also try to "cause" niches, but this is harder);
having a very long feature list, especially "trendy" features (AKA: 
buzz-words);
probably a catchy yet familiar name, which carries desirable associations;
a spiffy logo, especially if it emphasizes the name or first letter in 
some catchy way;
plastering the above all over the internet (IOW: lots of advertising);
...


ultimately, it will likely all be pointless, as even if one does gain 
some popularity, unless their is some real substance, it will just as 
quickly fade away again (and, also, it is hard to compete with the large 
corporations who make a lot of business in these ways, and can pump 
millions of dollars into such campaigns, as well as "polishing the turd" 
far more than nearly any non-commercial or smaller-budget effort can 
manage).

probably better I think (for smaller projects) is to focus more on 
having at least moderately "solid" engineering in place, and with any 
luck maybe the engineering will speak for itself, but this by no means 
one will "win" the language wars (even a well engineered piece of 
technology may still never see the light of day if it turns out to be 
more of a "solution in search of a problem").

many people who support niche languages may also tend to overlook 
glaring holes or deficiencies as "not really a big deal". but, many 
people are not nearly so devoted, and can't be asked to learn the "best" 
way to work around some particular "non-issue" (if the community adopts 
a mindset of "it's not horribly broken, it's a feature", or worse, "this 
is how everything should be, just everyone else is ignorant/doesn't see 
the light/...", maybe, just maybe, it really is broken...).

everything ultimately boils down, in large part, to cost/benefit 
trade-offs, and the ever important question: "what do I get out of 
this?". people don't really care as much about "the future" or "the 
perfect solution" so much as its immediate benefit towards whatever task 
it is they are trying to get done at the moment, and a good tool is 
"just there".


or such...

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What makes a programming language popular? Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-02-05 19:33 -0600
  Re: What makes a programming language popular? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-02-05 22:57 -0700
    Re: What makes a programming language popular? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201202.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2012-02-07 18:12 +0100
      Re: What makes a programming language popular? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-02-07 18:34 +0000
        Re: What makes a programming language popular? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-02-07 15:25 -0700
  Re: What makes a programming language popular? tm <thomas.mertes@gmx.at> - 2012-02-06 23:27 -0800
    Re: What makes a programming language popular? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-02-07 15:53 -0700
      Re: What makes a programming language popular? gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-02-08 04:07 -0800
        Re: What makes a programming language popular? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-02-08 17:15 -0700
          Second Best Language Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-02-08 20:19 -0600
            Re: Second Best Language BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-02-08 21:27 -0700
    Re: What makes a programming language popular? gremnebulin <peterdjones@yahoo.com> - 2012-02-08 04:05 -0800

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