Re:Cppfront, Herb Sutter's proposal for a new C++ syntax
by int_19h on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @04:59PM
(#32917718)
If you look at the thread, I'm not the same person who originally made the claim.
Nevertheless, it is definitely the case that the "name: type" syntax is noticeably more trendy now than it was, say, 15 years ago. Sure, there were plenty of languages that had it already back then, including Scala (and ML, and Delphi, and ...). But how many of them were mainstream? Whereas now, this syntax is embraced by Python and TypeScript.
And not even OP claimed that the syntax itself is new or recent; I mean, everybody who knows about Pascal knows how old it really is! They literally said "it's an old idea" that is "currently trendy".
Sure, if we redefine "recent" or "current" we can twist words to reach whatever conclusion. In reality, this ": type" syntax is neither new nor recent, nor is it "a current trend". Kotlin is also not recent. A decade is a lot.
You conveniently left Scala out, I suppose because it didn't fit your argument.
> "For another example, Python goes all the way back to 1991"
Well, since we are discussing Python, the syntax for its type hints looks like what exactly? And it was discussed as far back as 2014. Is that "recent"?