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From: papresco@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Prescod)
Subject: Re: Theory #51 (superior(?) programming languages)
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Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 18:11:44 GMT
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In article <3305B919.1D5F@widomaker.com>,
Earl & Daniella Harris  <esharris@widomaker.com> wrote:
>I agree with Cyber Surfer.  Lisp has had less funding and hype than
>C++.  I'm interested in hearing a rebuttal to this.

I'm not going to rebut that. But Cyber Surfer also wished that someone 
would spend $40,000,000.00 on Lisp so that it could be more popular. I
agree with him that $40,000,000.00 could make anything more popular, but
I do not think that it would make Lisp "mainstream." The reasons Lisp
is not popular are more subtle than just finances. Microsoft has twice
now been forced to support a new programming language to "keep up" with
the market hype: C++ and then Java. Ironically, the hype drives the
development *and* the marketing. Neither AT&T nor Sun spent a great deal
on hypeing their respective languages in the early days. Once those 
languages started to take off, they hopped on the bandwagon, of course.

 Paul Prescod

