Is Python the Esperanto of programming languages?

[Erik Max Francis]

Jack Diederich wrote:

> Saying "good, great, thoughtful, best intentions - exactly like this
> widely
> heckeled massive failure who's crowning acheivement was a movie
> starring
> William Shatner."  hardly strikes me as a compliment.

Most reliable estimates put the number of Esperanto speakers worldwide
at 1-2 million, and appears to be growing (especially with the advent of
the Internet).  While that may not be the ideal goal (being a universal
auxiliary language that practically everybody knows), that puts it on
par with the total number of speakers of local languages such as
Estonian or maybe even Hebrew.  Is that "enough," or something to brag
about?  It depends on your viewpoint, but labelling it a "massive
failure" seems inappropriate; it's by far the most popular planned
language.  It's true that it's frequently "heckled," but that's mostly
out of ignorance -- most people who think Esperanto is dumb don't
realize that it's not intended to be a primary language (i.e., to
replace whatever they're speaking now), but rather a universal second
language, so that everybody shares an auxiliary language.

Further, his comments were based on the _goals_ and _design_ of
Esperanto, not its current success ("elegant from the ground-up," "takes
many of the 'best' features of many other programming languages," and
"always with elegance in mind").  So by his analysis the current success
(or failure, however you judge it) of Esperanto is irrelevant, he was
making the comparison based on design.  So no, that ain't a troll.

And you're wrong.  Incubus _was_ a crowning achievement.  It was
positively, uproariously hilarious.

-- 
 Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
 __ San Jose, CA, USA / 37 20 N 121 53 W / &tSftDotIotE
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