[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change

[Alex Martelli]

On Tuesday 09 April 2002 01:51, Tim Peters wrote:
> [Alex Martelli]
>
> > ...
> > Judging by languages such as C or C++, stability seems paramount;
> > yet Java churned a lot and still managed to spread a lot too (not
> > without a lot of help from high-$$$ marketing efforts, though).
>
> Not to be cynical <wink>, but what those all have in common is the
> visible backing of multi-billion dollar companies.  Ditto Visual Basic

Not an issue of being cynical -- it's just a fact that C enjoyed no
"visible backing" from AT&T (or did you have some other corp in
mind?) to help it gain mindshare, and neither did C++.

If "backing from multi-billion dollar corps" mattered as much as you
seem to think we'd all be using PL/? or maybe some APL.  Or do
you forget who DID back _those_, and how much Big Blue dominated
the computer scene until not-all-that-many years ago?


Alex