[OT] Python like lanugages [was Re: After C++, what with Python?]

[Tim Harig]

On 2011-01-16, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 09:47:35 +0000, Tim Harig wrote:
>
>> One of the things that gives me hope
>> for Go is that it is backed by Google so I expect that it may gain some
>> rather rapid adoption.  It has made enough of a wake to grab one of
>> Eweek's 18 top languages for 2011.
>
> If the author thinks that Go is a "tried and true" (his words, not mine) 
> language "where programmers can go to look for work", I think he's 
> fooling himself.

No I wouldn't say that it has reached market penetration yet; but, it
has more momentum then any language I am familiar with.  I wouldn't be
at all surprised to see it becoming quite common in the next five years.

How long has it taken Python to reach its present level of market
penetration?  And, I still don't see a huge amount of professional Python
use outside of web developement.  Go has only been public for less then
a year.

Personally, I think the time is ripe for a language that bridges the
gap between ease of use dynamic languages with the performance and
distribution capabilities of a full systems level language.  This is after
all the promise the VM based languages made but never really fulfilled.
It is also high time for a fully concurrent language fully capable of
taking advantage of multicore processors without having to deal with the
inherent dangers of threading.  There are several good choices available
for both a even a few that fit both bills; but, few of them have the
support of a company like Google that is capable of the push required
to move the language into the mainstream.

> When I design my new language, I will make sure I choose a name such that 
> any attempt to search for it on job sites will produce oodles and oodles 
> and oodles of false positives, all the better to ensure that simple-
> minded "top language of ..." surveys will give a massively inflated job 
> count.

I would agree that Go wasn't the best idea for a language name from the
search perspective.  One would have though a company like Google would have
been cognizant of those limitations...