Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
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From: gperkins@netcom.com (Glen C. Perkins)
Subject: Re: Dylan's Future?
Message-ID: <gperkinsDF65Bs.Mu3@netcom.com>
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References: <43fv1e$jhp@horn.wyoming.com> <LOOSEMORE-SANDRA.95Sep18103054@functor.CS.Yale.Edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 20:09:28 GMT
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loosemore-sandra@CS.Yale.Edu (Sandra Loosemore) writes:

>Aaron Klingaman <aklingam@wyoming.com> writes:

>   Is there a future for Dylan? I mean will it be worth the effort to
>   switch from C ( I understand there are extensions for this ), or will C
>   always be there?

>C will almost certainly be around for a long, long time.  But I also
>see the need for some new language that has better support for
>object-oriented programming and modularity, that is not as clunky as
>C++ (or Common Lisp + CLOS, which is clunky in different ways).

>Trouble is, I'm beginning to think that new language isn't Dylan --
>it's Java, mainly because Java already has a "killer app" in the
>HotJava WWW browser (and soon Netscape will support it as its
>extension language, too).  Without wanting to get into religious wars
>about which language is better, I also think that because Java is more
>closely derived from C and C++ than Dylan is, it will be easier for
>the large community of current users of those languages to pick up.
>It's kind of sad, but it seems like Apple has delayed so long in
>getting a Dylan product to market, and even in making the language
>specification available to the public, that it may already have lost
>its window of opportunity.

>-Sandra

I agree. I was VERY excited about Dylan when it was first shown off at
the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, but Java seems as though it
is going to do for me what I wanted Dylan to do for me plus a lot more.
The last ten years of the computer industry have taught me that market
issues matter more than technology. Java is at the heart of Netscape 2.0
which means to me that it will be carried to glory in 1996 on the
web. Didn't Woody Alen say 98% of success was just showing up? The world
is having a party right now called the "web" and Java is coming in
the door. No matter how great Dylan is (and it has always impressed me
as a WONDERFUL design), it doesn't appear to have been invited to the
party. (Interestingly, neither was C++, and although Microsoft is now
arriving, they may discover that they aren't guests, they're just the
caterers!)

__Glen__
-- 
+-----------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|--- Glen C. Perkins ---|                                                   |
| <gperkins@netcom.com> |             "Don't forget, your mind              |
| Native Guide Software |              only *simulates* logic."             |
| Palo Alto, California |                                                   |
+-----------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

