Re:Rebol's future
by riffraff on Saturday September 08, 2012 @01:47PM
(#4493473)
wasn't the academic world one of the places where tools _were_ sold at a high price?
I am thinking matlab, mathematica, derive etc.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Notice that those are tools which specialize in specific domains (e.g. linear algebra), not just a general purpose programming language. And those tools are even higher priced without the academic discount.
No one has ever built a significant business on a new general-purpose programming language. It doesn't seem to be due to the relative lack of IP protection on languages either. It may be that it's simply not a problem worth solving, there's no solution worth marrying a vendor over, or there are too many language designers.