kilon.alios wrote
It took python 24 years to get as popular as it is nowdays, the most popular languages have a similar lifespan if not more in some cases. Its a really long process and its full of compromises and ugly truths.
Longevity is not a strategy for success. There are many old languages that have been around forever, and they have never become mainstream. Python, along with a handful of other languages, are exceptions. Smalltalk has had 40 years to get popular. It almost achieved it in the 1990s, but IBM dropped the ball and Sun kicked their ass. The last 20 years have been dismal for Smalltalk; it's all but a forgotten language. (Not so much in the past month. ;-)
PS: Just a clarification because people love to put words on other people mouths, I never said that languages like Clojure and Scheme has been miserable failures generally, but based on the hype of how popular they will become. Both Clojure and Sceme are great language with continuously expanding communities . I was merely wanted to point out how hype does not help and there was tons of hype when Java allowed for the creation of those languages. Jython for example is one of the oldest Java languages (2001), and there was tons of hype when the project started that Jython could become at worst an equal to Cpython on terms of popularity and even more popular than Java at best. Sun even funded the development of Jython back in 2008.
Hype does not help if *all* it does is attract public attention. Hype helps a great deal if it's backed up by tangible results; the product you're hyping must deliver! Hype is about growing mindshare from which springs many other benefits, /if you play your cards right/. -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/InfoWorld-on-Redline-Smalltalk-tp4799612p4800040.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Developers mailing list archive at Nabble.com.