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Could Python supplant Java?

Peter Hansen peter at engcorp.com
Wed Aug 21 10:21:35 EDT 2002 
Tim Tyler wrote:
> 
> In comp.lang.java.advocacy Gerhard Häring <gerhard.haering at opus-gmbh.net> wrote:
> : In article <1fh7m46.1rm1rwrubs0naN%ftl at pobox.com>, Peter Perlsø wrote:
> 
> :> Java has 10 years of evolution, marketing and buzzworkign behind it.
> 
> : Less than 10 years. Java emerged in 1996, if I'm not mistaken. And it
> : matured only a few years ago.
> 
> Not according to: http://www.ils.unc.edu/blaze/java/javahist.html
> 
> That traces Java's roots to January 15, 1991.

And likewise, Python's roots go back well *before* 1991.  That year,
however, was when it was first *publicly* released, which roughly
corresponds to something like 1996 for Java.

And this part of the discussion is pointless, because now somebody
will point out Gosling's past with some _other_ language which thus
"proves Java has it's roots in 1982" or something.  :)

Let's just go with the *public* release, as it's a clear point in
time at which the developers had enough confidence in their respective
languages to make them publicly available.  We can't read their minds
about when they really started thinking about it, and we can't easily
distinguish between work on one language, and the language that came
before it.

-Peter
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