this is bad for people who have bet on using different technology
Absolutely true.
An intersting thing is that I, and I'm sure quite a few others, would never have guessed that language choice was a "bet" (at least, not this kind of bet, anyway).
Absolutely true.
An intersting thing is that I, and I'm sure quite a few others, would never have guessed that language choice was a "bet" (at least, not this kind of bet, anyway).
Oh boy... It took years for me to convince several companies Java is not the only language that can turn out "enterprise level" applications...
That risks putting me back in square one.
Thanks, Steve. Well played.
No doubt, but that's a different kind of "bet" (I briefly alluded to it in my original comment). There's naturally the bet that the language might not be around in 2 years, or that the language isn't capable enough to do what you need it to do, or that the language is too niche for XYZ Corporation's programmers and finding other programmers might be hard[1].
But that's a completely different kind of bet from "I wonder if this very popular and capable language will be against the arbitrary and ever-changing rules."
The former is quite practical. The latter shouldn't have to be a concern.
[1] Off-topic, I recently had this debate with a guy I'm going into business with, in which I was trying to convince him Erlang is a viable language. He's more of a business-financial-type and was concerned with the proverbial "what happens if you get hit by a bus." While I understand his concern, eventually he, correctly, resigned the programming stuff to me, where it belongs :)