On Monday, 16 May 2016 at 10:41:59 UTC, Chris wrote:
Of course not, neither was Python intended to replace languages like C++ or Java. You mentioned projects that are successful and use scripting languages.
I don't think Python ever will replace C++ or Java, but it is actually a decent language when you add type annotations. Fortunately PyCharm supports type annotations in comments which makes Python2.7 much more acceptable when writing web-services in Python. Of course, web-services tend to resolve around checking data connecting to other systems, so not really self contained programs (most of the program "state" is in remote databases, http services, mem-cache servers etc).
PHP, that's why I mentioned it. But none of these scripting languages were ever meant to be used for building large scale projects. People just did it, because it was so easy. Now it's come back to bite them.
Yes, if you implement the system in one big monolithic executable. If you write many smaller independent programs that communicate then it works out ok. So it is somewhat context dependent.
That's a good use of scripting languages. That's where SLs belong, i.e. very specific domains where they make things easier.
Yes, but with gradual typing, JITs and premade graphics/layout engines (e.g. browsers) the border between scripting and non-scripting is getting blurred. Like, angular2 + typescript is based on a scripting language, but not really in the sense of Perl and Php. It is moving towards a mixed domain specific declarative language.
You also now have something called NativeScript which makes native iOS apis available in javascript (and therefore in TypeScript/Angular) so...
Something is happening with how applications can be implemented. I think this trend will continue. Once you have established a recurring design pattern then declarative languages makes a lot of sense.
