Is There Any Future For Closed Languages?

willmurat writes: "I read about Rebol in an article in UnixInsider months ago. It seems to me a very interesting language, with new features and trying to bring new paradigms in programming. But (always there is a but ...), it isn't Open Source and no institution is responsible to maintain that language. The only responsible party is Rebol Technologies. I'm not saying this is the right way to failure; there are examples of success following this way (Visual Basic and Delphi, for example), but I think a business strategy like that isn't good anymore. See the current developing of Perl version 6 for a very good example of language discussion. Seems to me the owners of Rebol language are limitating the popularization of that language choosing that way of dealing in this issue ... Is there any future to popularize a language that way?"

Comments

I disagree

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I would say that languages have been sucessful that have proprietary control: VisualBasic, Java, Delphi. Microsoft hopes C# will also be successful. However, what makes a language successful has nothing to do with who controls it, but with its effectiveness. C++ for example has been bogged down in standards committees for years, and yet clearly established itself due to its incredible effectiveness and inter-compatibility with C. Java failed to become to the new defacto platform for GUI but, landed a home run with net service applications. VB is just a quick way to do Windows GUI work, but its a horrible language by anyone's admission. I don't think Perl's more open approach to design has much of an effect on the user base. Perl's success is due more in part to its natural ability as a workhorse. Python's sudden rise to the scene is a credit to its natural form and cross-platform glue, not its open source. For that matter, I don't use Linux because it's open source. I use Linux because its a damn good OS and extremely cost effective. Open Source projects do not garauntee a project will be successful. It is simply an alternative model of development.