On Saturday, 8 September 2018 at 14:20:10 UTC, Laeeth Isharc
wrote:
Religions have believers but not supporters - in fact saying
you are a supporter says you are not a member of that faith or
community.
If you are a supporter of Jesus Christ's efforts, then you most
certainly are a christian. If you are a supporter of the Pope,
then you may or not may be catholic, but you most likely are
christian or a sympathise with the faith.
Programming languages are more like powertools. You may be a big
fan of Makita and dislike using other powertools like Bosch and
DeWalt, or you may have different preferences based the
situation, or you may accept whatever you have at hand. Being a
supporter is stretching it though... Although I am sure that
people who only have Makita in their toolbox feel that they are
supporting the company.
Social institutions need support to develop - language is a
very old human institution, and programming languages have more
similarity with natural languages alongst certain dimensions
(I'm aware that NLP is your field) than some recognise.
Sounds like a fallacy.
So, why shouldn't a language have supporters? I give some
money to the D Foundation - this is called providing support.
If you hope to gain some kind of return for it or consequences
that you benefit from then it is more like obtaining support and
influence through providing funds. I.e. paying for support...
It's odd - if something isn't useful for me then either I just
move on and find something that is, or I try to directly act
myself or organise others to improve it so it is useful. I
don't stand there grumbling at the toolmakers whilst taking no
positive action to make that change happen.
Pointing out that there is a problem, that needs to be solved, in
order to reach a state where the tool is applicable in a
production line... is not grumbling. It is healthy. Whether
that leads to positive actions (changes in policies) can only be
affected through politics, not "positive action". Doesn't help
to buy a new, bigger and better motor, if the transmission is
broken.
