ECMAScript the Next Big Programming Language
Steve Yegge of Google has an interesting post up on his blog about The Next Big Language. In it, he discusses what he feels are the necessary criteria for a successful programming language, but doesn’t actually name the language he thinks will be it. What is most fun about the article is reading the comments from people trying to guess the language he is discussing: so far ECMAScript (aka ActionScript 3) as implemented by Flash/Flex/Apollo/Tamarin seems to be the leading contender, though Groovy is also mentioned a fair bit.
For my part, I’m not sure I agree with all of his criteria, especially the ones around static typing and the “Kitchen Sink”. That said, I find the fact that people are focusing on dynamic languages as the next big thing to be very encouraging.
Shebanator 