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Discussion on: Which language would you want to see take over the world?

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yuripredborskiy profile image
Yuri Predborskiy • Edited

Plain English. So that I could write something like 1+1= and get 2, or 'calculate distance from my location to the moon' and get a sensible answer. And English just happens to be the easiest to learn and most widely used language in the world (in my humble opinion).

If my answer was restricted to programming languages I'd pick javascript. After trying some 6 languages I ended up preferring it for ease of use. Tried python, Java, c++, c#, ruby but preferred js as closest alternative to English. Easy to use and you can build an interactive GUI with it (html+css+js = web app, similar to windows forms app but works anywhere, like java).

Haven't tried lisp yet.

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phlash profile image
Phil Ashby

Wolfram Alpha is quite near this already!

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avalander profile image
Avalander

That's an interesting take, I hadn't considered this perspective :)

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yuripredborskiy profile image
Yuri Predborskiy

Thing is: I love programming, it is like a Lego constructor with tiny pieces, and you can build practically anything with it. It can be considered a type of art. But as a tool it should be both simple and universal, something that doesn't require special knowledge and years of training to use. English is a commonly used language, it is frequently used to give commands and as such it could be considered the most frequently used programming language. And we programmers are a button-mashing walking-talking human-machine interface that translate English into one of the programming languages! :D

It could be just me, though - I started programming because I needed a specific automation tool and my platform of choice offered a simple scripting language, which I just picked up and started hacking. And then it grew on me, but the idea that programming is just a way to get stuff done remains.