>Yes, of course most people will only use the language if they have a reason to use it. Unfortunately that's not a very actionable insight.
Of course it is. Both illuminating ("hmm, we are lacking a concrete reason/opportunity to use the language, that's why people don't come to us") and actionable ("hmm, we better buuld one then").
Groovy, for an example of the latter, copied Rails to get Grails, which is one of its major selling points. And Julia tries to rebuild the Python/R statistical/scientific ecosystem.
>For example I would be stunned if a large proportion of current Go users said that they're using Go because it comes from Google.
They might not say it, not even believe it themselves (they'd say thing like "it's the goroutines", or "it's the refhersing simplicity"), but I don't doubt much of it is true. Other worthwhile languages don't have the same visibility, a-level core teams, and sessions during Google-confs that Go has.
Of course it is. Both illuminating ("hmm, we are lacking a concrete reason/opportunity to use the language, that's why people don't come to us") and actionable ("hmm, we better buuld one then").
Groovy, for an example of the latter, copied Rails to get Grails, which is one of its major selling points. And Julia tries to rebuild the Python/R statistical/scientific ecosystem.
>For example I would be stunned if a large proportion of current Go users said that they're using Go because it comes from Google.
They might not say it, not even believe it themselves (they'd say thing like "it's the goroutines", or "it's the refhersing simplicity"), but I don't doubt much of it is true. Other worthwhile languages don't have the same visibility, a-level core teams, and sessions during Google-confs that Go has.