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From: amos@nsta.UUCP (Amos Shapir)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: What makes a language popular?
Message-ID: <331@nsta.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Aug-87 11:45:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsta.331
Posted: Wed Aug 12 11:45:33 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Aug-87 00:48:17 EDT
References: <331@hubcap.UUCP> <627@ima.ISC.COM> <638@ima.ISC.COM> <644@ima.ISC.COM> <2482@ames.arpa>
Reply-To: amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir)
Distribution: world
Organization: National Semiconductor (Israel) Ltd. Home of the 32532
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Hdate: 17 Av 5747


It seems that  support, rather than a written standard,  is what makes a
language 'standard'.  If a language  is to  be kept from  diverging into
many different dialects, someone has to do the keeping - there should be
a central  location for gripes, updates,  etc. Just compare the  fate of
Ada, C and  Modula-2 that have such caretakers, vs.  Fortran, Pascal and
Basic that do not, even though the latter have ANSI or ISO standards.

-- 
	Amos Shapir			(My other cpu is a NS32532)
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel  Tel. +972 52 522261
amos%nsta@nsc.com @{hplabs,pyramid,sun,decwrl} 34 48 E / 32 10 N