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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

Because Android is Kotlin's selling platform, on the JVM it will be as relevant as Beanshell, jtcl, jython, clojure, scala, and many other guest languages.

Guest languages relevance always fades away as the platform language improves and the FFI gets out of touch with that old version of the language.

C18 on UNIX vs C++, JavaScript vs Typescript (see private members), and when time comes inline classes/reiffed generics/SIMD types vs being able to target both Android and JVM on Kotlin's case.

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Old men are always trying to discount progress as reiteration of what they already saw to fail.

But in reality, it's not the same thing, it's not the same time, not the same market environment.

Kotlin can succeed where others failed before because just about everything about it is incomparable with sorts like Beanshell.

Young men are always trying to count progress as the reiteration of what has already come before them.

In reality, while the differences are minor, they are the same thing. Time fades away, and market dynamics operate the same as they did 10,20..100 years ago.

Yes, that happens with young people as well.

The hubris is in using absolute statements ("platform languages always win") instead of being a little bit more humble with their projections. Old men should know better that history rarely unfolds as expected.

Old wise men know that young people forget history too soon, and we all know what happens when history gets forgotten.

Indeed, bare my words, in about 10 years time, Kotlin will only be a thing on Android, assuming Fuchsia wasn't brought into the market as Android's successor.

I’ll second this prediction.

Kotlin has made too many promises that it can't keep.

Care to remind us ?

Relevant for who? I will always strive for using the language that fits my needs regardless of what the majority thinks

Can you explain what the difference is between C18 and C++ on Unix?

C++ copy-paste compatibility with C is based on C89, since then C has introduced many features that won't compile under a C++ compiler.

ISO C++ has kept upgrading the support regarding ISO C libraries, as long as new grammar features aren't required.

Even ISO C++20 has finally added support for structure member initialisation, it is just a subset of what is possible in C.

So while UNIX vendors are free to use all C features, due to their symbiotic relationship, ISO C++ applications can only safely compile C89 code.

No full structure member initialisation, restrict, VLA,...

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