
Owning a Programming Language - jaimebuelta
http://www.marco.org/2014/03/23/owning-a-programming-language
======
twp
The central claim of the post is that Microsoft and Apple look after their
developers while Facebook and Google will not. This is demonstrably false.

The post says:

> Microsoft and Apple have massive vested interests in supporting their
> languages and platforms. They stand to lose a lot to their core businesses
> if they stop. Developers’ interests align somewhat with theirs in this
> regard: one developer doesn’t have a lot of power in those relationships,
> but the sum of all developers definitely does, so these companies generally
> need to care for these languages and maintain these platforms for a long
> time.

This reasoning fails dismally when applied to Microsoft's own technologies:
VB6, Silverlight, Windows 8 Phone (original version). All these developers
cast out. There are surely more examples.

~~~
ben336
The analogy was to C# and Objective C, not to those other languages. The
argument went

1\. Facebook might abandon Hack at some point

2\. No, Hack is like Objective C and C#, which Microsoft and Apple support
just fine

3\. No here is how Hack is NOT like those languages, community support is not
important to facebook like it is for ObjC and C#.

So how Microsoft treats other languages is completely irrelevant to that
particular point, and actually supports what Marco is arguing here, since
you're implying that programming languages might be abandoned even if
community support does matter.

------
hawkharris
While I appreciate your general point, I disagree with the notion that
companies have a vested interest in protecting a language, tool or framework
only once it has attracted a critical mass of developers. Other factors signal
a company's commitment. Case in point: your comment about Dart. A few weeks
ago I and two of the engineers who helped develop Dart gave talks at Google
about the future of Angular / Dart.

It's public knowledge -- yet many people don't know -- that Google is also
using AngularDart for large internal projects. Though the technologies still
have relatively small user bases, Google has devoted considerable time, money
and manpower to building software with AngularDart and to making it accessible
to external developers. For example, my talk was part of an initiative called
FlightSchool that provides comprehensive tutorials, workshops and other
resources.

Having said that, I wouldn't argue that a large user base is the most
important signal of mutual support and leverage in the relationship between
engineers and software companies.

------
EliRivers
_Apple effectively owning Objective-C._

Is that true? I spent the last four years coding primarily in Objective-C for
Linux and Win targets; none of the tools I used were from Apple.

~~~
Touche
You're the only person on the planet doing that.

------
mark_l_watson
I agree with the OP on support for Hack not being core to FB's business.

I am not sure if can agree with the Google Dart comment. Google has a vested
interest in making it as easy as possible for content creators making stuff
for the web. From some Dart development I have done, the whole ecosystem looks
good to me.

------
thinkpad20
Facebook has obviously invested huge resources into developing this language
and its supporting architecture. It's being used extensively throughout their
presumably massive code base. To suggest that they could simply drop it and
walk away ignores these things. Also, presumably they developed it for a
reason; it fulfills important needs of theirs and they're not going to simply
let it whither on the vine.

------
kyberias
Oh please! Obviously Facebook benefits when people use their programming
language more. People contribute to the standard library, test stuff, share
stuff. The pool of people familiar with the language to hire from gets larger.

It's so obvious I wonder what goes on in the op's head.

~~~
pearjuice
OP's head is a linkbait fluff article magnet which is somehow seen as the holy
grail here on HN and other echo circles.

I have no idea where this originates from and it hurts me to see that his void
content gets picked over actual quality content just because it's "the Marco".
His domain should be - wildcard at the begin and end - permanently banned from
Hacker News because it only drags us into a wasted spot on the frontpage.

~~~
eyeballtrees
It also provides us with wonderful comments like these. I don't enjoy Marco
for the articles, I enjoy him for the HN comments. It's the best part.

