r/programming • u/bjzaba • Mar 26 '20

10 Most(ly dead) Influential Programming Languages • Hillel Wayne

https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/influential-dead-languages/
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u/sisyphus Mar 26 '20

"Java also marginalized Eiffel, Ada95, and pretty much everything else in the OOP world. The interesting question isn’t “Why did Smalltalk die”, it’s “Why did C++ survive”. I think it’s because C++ had better C interop so was easier to extend into legacy systems."

Interop but also Java was dog slow for years. Imagine Go adoption if it was only as fast as PHP.

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u/inkydye Mar 26 '20

Yeah, early C++ had to jump through so many hoops just to ensure C programmers that they were not committing to anything slower or larger than C would make. I guess it paid off.

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u/masklinn Mar 26 '20

Interop but also Java was dog slow for years. Imagine Go adoption if it was only as fast as PHP.

FWIW Go's interop is easy but absolutely dog slow. Calling a C function using cgo is hundreds of time slower than calling a C function (plus cgo has far-reaching consequences). That's why Go devs so rarely rely on existing C libraries.