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A comment on Ask HN: Can someone explain to me why all languages don't try to have the same syntax?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Can someone explain to me why all languages don't... by mattmaroon on Monday December 22, 2008 @02:08AM (#406175)
We have programming languages because people make them. The only way to have only 3 or 4 is to eradicate all but those and stop people from making more. However if we did that, I have a feeling we would now choose 1 or 2 that wouldn't exist if someone had done the same thing a decade ago.
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Re:Ask HN: Can someone explain to me why all languages don't... by stcredzero on Monday December 22, 2008 @12:28PM (#406581)
A professor of mine once quipped: "What's the definition of a 'gentleman computer scientist?' Someone who knows how to make a their own computer language, but doesn't."
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Re:Ask HN: Can someone explain to me why all languages don't... by mattmaroon on Monday December 22, 2008 @10:36PM (#407225)
What about someone who knows how to get people on eLance to bid to make them for $1,000, no matter how impossible, but doesn't?
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Re:Ask HN: Can someone explain to me why all languages don't... by stcredzero on Monday December 29, 2008 @01:12PM (#413235)
If you strip down a language so far that there's not much to it at all, then $1000 for a new language isn't so far fetched. Just don't ask for support for libraries, a JIT VM, etc. Then again, you could implement it on top of a pre-existing VM, and get access to libraries.

What about a minimalist subset of Python with curly braces instead of indenting? I think I'd actually like that language. Add an easy mapping to Python libraries, and you're done. $1000 is still a bit on the low end for that, but $3000 would seem quite reasonable.

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