Re:Hobby x86 kernel written with Zig
by wolfgke on Monday January 06, 2020 @10:01AM
(#21969584)
> May I ask why people invent new languages rather than trying to extend or improve existing ones, like C?
Because extending or improving a language nearly always means breaking compatibility. Nearly every language is "stuck in a local optimum". To get out of it, you have to kill assumptions of the language that lead to this local optimum.
Also it takes a lot more work to convince other people to adapt my changes than to write an implementation of a language. Add to this the fact that being a good programmer and being a good politician are rather independent skills.
Finally, there do exist issues that cannot be fixed, for example that the official ISO standard of the C language is not freely available (I am aware that there exist drafts in the internet).
Because extending or improving a language nearly always means breaking compatibility. Nearly every language is "stuck in a local optimum". To get out of it, you have to kill assumptions of the language that lead to this local optimum.
Also it takes a lot more work to convince other people to adapt my changes than to write an implementation of a language. Add to this the fact that being a good programmer and being a good politician are rather independent skills.
Finally, there do exist issues that cannot be fixed, for example that the official ISO standard of the C language is not freely available (I am aware that there exist drafts in the internet).