Language Niches (long)

[Courageous]

> * Java was the only way to do client-side graphics and then evolved
>into "Servlets" and "EJBs"

Note that this quickly went by the way side. The vast majority of all
web-served client-side graphic technologies are not Java. Javascript
(which is most emphatically not Java) dominates the landscape here.

> * Perl was also the defacto way to do CGI in the early web

Funny, too, as it never had to be, and you could easily gen up a
C program which did your CGI duties with vastly higher efficiency
(n.b.: assuming you didn't badly screw up in string management).

>cross-platform general-purpose rapid application development. Moore's
>law is slowly making type declarations irrelevant....

While I actually agree with this sentiment, note well that in compile-
time type checking communities, the primary argument in favor is
compile-time error checking, not speed. The speed argument is
actually close to dead, because a good optimizing jit VM can
achieve speeds nearly equivalent to C within about a factor of 2
much of the time, even without declared type information.

>I would much rather see Python evolve than to see Python#, Jython,
>Python++ and various other variants split off while our community is
>still so small. But really, the int/int->float thing is not really a way
>of avoiding a fork. It is more a way of doing *the right thing*
>technically in the opinion of Guido and many others.

I emphatically agree. Correctness should be pursued; things should
evolve. Care should be taken to offer a sensible migration path, and
things which break forward migration should be given due consideration.

C//