Ask HN: Do we need this many[700] Programming languages? - totaldude87
======
traes
Do we need this many? No. We don't _need_ any. There are many reasons new
languages get created, but very rarely does an old language ever die. Erlang
was created out of a need for reliable, scalable, multi-threaded programs that
could withstand failure. D (and arguably Rust to an extent) was created due to
perceived failures in C++. Scripting languages weren't even practical for real
programs for decades, so of course people created less verbose languages when
they got the hardware.

In addition, new languages are being created for research (ML, LISP 1.0,
Racket) and for _fun_. Not many of either of those categories catch on, but
there's enough volume of them that they still proliferate.

------
jjgreen
700?! Ridiculous! we need to develop one universal language that covers
everyone's use cases. [1]

[1] [https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)

