Language Flux

As far as computing goes, the language wars and the attendant syntax thrash is a disappointment. This is a phenomenon that I never envisioned. In younger years, I would have guessed and hoped some sort of ultimate, universal programming language would have been developed by now, but that hasn't happened, and things don't seem to be going in that direction. The bright spot, I suppose, is the exent to which C's syntax has been adopted in many new languages.

A lot of thought and effort goes into solving many computing problems. Once the problem is solved, the greatest value, I believe, is the computational mechanism embodied in the solution. In Aristotelian terms, this is the essential part while the language used and associated syntax is merely accidental.

Perpetual language flux results in a perpetual reinvention of wheels of computing, or sometimes useful old wheels simply fade into the past and fall into disuse. I'm left pondering the extent to which this impedes human progress. Too much human effort seems to be thrown away. There seems to be a need for more global thinking in this area.