You can get around the idea of ubiquity of languages if you're prepared to build tiny easily understandable (in 5 minutes or less) micro languages.
Consider "how to use iOS touch" as if it were a language and how easy it is to learn. Afterall, a user interface is simply a visual / behavioural language, right? ;-) Julian On 15/03/2012, at 11:34 AM, C. Scott Ananian wrote: > On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 6:02 PM, Jameson Quinn <[email protected]> > wrote: > If you're going to base it on Javascript, at least make it Coffeescript-like. > I also agree that some basic parallelism primitives would be great; it is > probably possible to build these into a Coffeescript-like dialect using JS > under the hood (though they'd probably optimize even better if you could > implement them natively instead of in JS). > > I think you are underestimating the value of using a standard widely-deployed > language. I love languages as much as the next guy---but our previous > learning environment (Sugar) has had incredible difficulty getting local > support outside the US because it is written in *Python*. Python is "not a > commercially viable language" (not my words) and you can't even take > university classes in Python in many countries (say, Uruguay) because there > is no company behind it and no one who will give you a "certificate" for > having learned it. > > This is very sad, but the true state of affairs. > > JavaScript is not perfect, but at heart it is a functional object-oriented > language which is pretty darn close to Good Enough. There are huge benefits > to using a language which is supported by training materials all over the > web, university systems outside the US, etc, etc. > > I am open to *very* slight extensions to JavaScript -- OMeta/JS and > quasiquote might squeeze in -- but they have to be weighed against their > costs. Subsets are even more problematic -- once you start subsetting, then > you are throwing away compatibility with all the wealth of JavaScript > libraries out there, in addition to confusing potential contributors who are > trying to type in examples they found in some book. > --scott > > -- > ( http://cscott.net ) > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > [email protected] > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
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