We keep throwing new shit at the wall, eventually something sticks. To a whole generation of developers it might like like JavaScript is the One True Web Programming Language but anyone whose lived through a few transitions knows that we replace entrenched technologies on the scale of decades, it has come and it will go like everything else, sic transit gloria lingua.
The usual (but not universal) trigger is a technological arms race between three or more competing firms attached to a compelling new idea.
Not sure how a new language can help with an ecosystem problem. In the old days, people write your own code and relied on a vendor provided standard lib, for example C++ stdlib, Java platform or Python's batteries included. Since software is expensive, to save time and money people started to rely on 3rd party libraries, conveniently delivered by package repositories, for example CPAN, PyPI or npm. A new language will be subject to the exact same cost and delivery deadline pressures. If anything, newer languages tend to have ecosystems even more dependent of 3rd party modules. The PL problem is largely solved, the ecosystem problem is not.
inopinatus|5 years ago
We keep throwing new shit at the wall, eventually something sticks. To a whole generation of developers it might like like JavaScript is the One True Web Programming Language but anyone whose lived through a few transitions knows that we replace entrenched technologies on the scale of decades, it has come and it will go like everything else, sic transit gloria lingua.
The usual (but not universal) trigger is a technological arms race between three or more competing firms attached to a compelling new idea.
alquemist|5 years ago