Re:Dylan: the harsh realities of the market
by klibertp on Wednesday August 27, 2014 @04:30AM
(#8231256)
I completely agree. As I wrote, libraries and other features of a platform do matter and of course you need to take those into account when deciding which language to use. It's always very specific to a given situation though, for example lack of "batteries included" libraries may not be a concern when choosing language to embed in your app (like Lua). But in general great language features and great platform features (for example working package manager) are both very important factors that you need to take into account when deciding on language(s) for your project.
If you have this language with these great features, but it has lousy libraries and therefore you have to write a bunch more stuff yourself, you need to weigh that against the great features when deciding whether to use that language. Just having the great features isn't enough. (In fact, this is a big part of how Java conquered a big chunk of the world. As a language, it's kind of a yawn. But the library is like Barbie - it has everything.)