"[ ] You have reinvented PHP better, but that's still no justification"
I always like this one. Even thus I have no real thing against PHP, it makes me smile.
I have something against PHP, but there's a deeper point to be made here. A language that does nothing more than reinvent a popular language will not succeed, even if it does a better job. To succeed, a language has to provide a good solution to a problem a lot of developers are having. Some examples:
* C - assembly and machine languages are not portable
* PHP - the barriers to entry for server-side web programming are too hugh
* Java - C++ becomes too error-prone with large teams
* Clojure[0] - there's too much complexity in programming that isn't inherent to the problems being solved
* Ruby, Python - Perl is really useful, but a little too messy
[0] Calling Clojure popular may be pushing it, but there seems to be some momentum building behind it.
Clojure[0] - there's too much complexity in programming that isn't inherent to the problems being solved
That is more or less what every language is trying to achieve. It would be more accurate to say "Clojure: All other Lisp implementations are impractical".
I don't think so. Many languages - I'm specifically thinking of Java and C# here - have made it their goal to manage complexity. Rich Hickey has made it an explicit goal to eliminate incidental complexity and has spoken about it on several occasions.
