"A" <A@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message news:<3f**********@news.iprimus.com.au>...
First it was C, then C++, what comes next?
Java and C#
Bjarne Stroustrup says on his web page about C#:
"I have no comments on C# as a language. It will take a lot
to persuade me that the world needs yet another proprietary
language (YAPL). It will be especially hard to persuade me
that it needs a language that is closely integrated with a
specific proprietary operating system. Clearly, I'm no great
fan of proprietary languages, and quite a fan of open,
formal standards."
http://www.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#Csharp
So maybe the next BIG programming language won't be C#, because we
don't know the future of Microsoft and C# is a language that is
"closely integrated with a specific proprietary operating system."
Also, Stroustrup said on an interview about Java:
"I outlined the design criteria for C++ in detail in The
Design and Evolution of C++, and Java doesn't even start
to meet those criteria. -- Unlike Java, C++ supports
the ability to effectively compose a program out of
parts written in different languages,
a variety of design and programming styles,
user-defined types with efficiencies that approach
built-in types, uniform treatment of built-in and
user-defined types, and the ability to use generic
containers without runtime overhead"
http://www.research.att.com/~bs/ieee_interview.html
Because of the limitations Stroustrup listed about Java, perhaps the
next big language won't be Java either.
When Stroustrup designed C++, maybe people didn't know how big it
would get. Maybe we won't know the next great language, until it has
been in the public for a few decades.