From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Feb 27 2002 - 02:17:02 MST
I would not describe Lisp, which is where most language ideas
originated and were first implemented (not all), as being
"obscure". For that matter I wouldn't describe the grandmother
of OO languages (at least on one side of the tree), Smalltalk,
as being obscure. There are more than a few Smalltalk gurus
behind the Java libraries. Although the Java environment makes
a lot of their efforts more difficult and much was lost to the
constraints of Java. C++ is a good OO version of C but
Objective C, which was around first, was much easier to do many
wonderful things in that are relatively difficult to do in C++.
Of course Objective C was some basic Smalltalk ideas and
abilities grafted onto C. But it was quite serviceable.
Unfortunately a large company was not behind it at the right
time. Betweeen the attitude of Jobs and the woes of the
original StepStone company in the 80s, C++ won out in that
segment. But I digress.
Frankly I think Flare is much to married to XML to have a chance
of developing into a truly innovative and effective language.
- samantha
Ben Goertzel wrote:
>>I find it highly implausible that Microsoft would find features
>>to steal from
>>Flare rather than the multitude of languages that have existed
>>for a very long
>>time. Sincerely, good luck with Flare, but if I was in charge, I would be
>>focusing my efforts elsewhere.
>>
>>cheers,
>> Simon
>>
>
> 1) Eliezer, as he's stated many times, IS presently focusing his efforts
> elsewhere (i.e. on seed AI design)
>
> 2) Even if Flare never catches on (as I suspect it won't), it is often the
> case that little, obscure, innovative languages provide inspiration for yet
> other little obscure innovative language, etc. etc. -- *eventually*
> providing partial inspiration for some popular, widely used language. For
> instance, OO programming as embedded in C++ and Java has its roots in a
> number of earlier obscure academic languages, not just Smalltalk...
>
> -- Ben G
>
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