User loginNavigation |
archivesEconomics of Programming LanguagesI like programming languages a lot. I've used a number of them professionally, and have even written one myself - Hecl - although it borrows most of its ideas, if not source code, from Tcl. And, of course, I've taken part in my share of debates and discussions on "which language is best," a topic which of course doesn't have one clear answer but is often the source of heated arguments. I recently read an interesting book, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian (Harvard Business School Press, 1998; ISBN: 087584863X), which talks about the economics of the world of high technology. While reading it and thinking about programming languages, a number of things clicked. They aren't earth-shattering conclusions. On the contrary, a lot of them are more or less common sense, but it's nice to read that there are some methodically studied theories behind some of the intuitions, hunches and observations I've made over the years. In this article, I attempt to list what I believe to be the most salient points of the economics of programming languages, and describe their effects on existing languages, as well as on those who desire to write and introduce new languages. |
Browse archivesActive forum topics |
Recent comments
3 weeks 21 hours ago
3 weeks 1 day ago
3 weeks 1 day ago
25 weeks 2 days ago
29 weeks 4 days ago
31 weeks 1 day ago
31 weeks 1 day ago
33 weeks 6 days ago
38 weeks 3 days ago
38 weeks 3 days ago